Starting from Oct. 18, Ukraine’s southern Kherson Oblast will no longer be the only region in the COVID-19 red restriction zone, according to Ukraine’s Health Ministry regulations.
Four more oblasts — Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Donetsk, and Dnipropetrovsk — will be added to this list, Oleg Nemchinov, Ukraine’s minister of the Cabinet of Ministers announced on Oct. 15.
Under the adaptive quarantine strategy, Ukraine color codes its regions green, yellow, orange or red, according to the severity of the outbreak there. On Oct. 15, Kherson Oblast became the first Ukrainian region to move into the red restriction zone.
The decision to move additional four oblasts into the red zone came after an emergency meeting of the State Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety.
“The situation is gradually getting worse. We see that the peak load on the health care system is expected in late November,” said Deputy Health Minister Ihor Kuzin on Oct.14.
As of Oct.16, there were 1,321 newly detected daily cases of Covid-19 in Odesa, in Dnipropetrovsk — 1,332, and in Zaporizhzhia — 917.
The oblast enters the red zone if the bed occupancy in hospitals is over 75%, and more than 320 patients contract COVID-19 per 100,000 people over the past 14 days.
Marked as oblasts of high epidemiological danger, there will be mandatory rules to follow. According to the Ministry of Health, no mass events can be held. The work of cafes, restaurants, movie theaters, theaters, museums, shopping malls, gyms and swimming pools is prohibited.
However, if 100% of employees and visitors are vaccinated the restrictions will not be applied.
Furthermore, schools and other education facilities can have classes in person only if 100% of the personnel is vaccinated. Kindergartens and schools from grades one through four are an exception to this rule.
There are also strict travel restrictions imposed for residents of an oblast in the red zone.
People will not be allowed to travel by bus, train or plane to other Ukrainian oblasts unless they have one of the following documents: a certificate of full vaccination, a negative PCR test, or a certificate that shows that the patient recently recovered from COVID.
Kyiv remains in the yellow zone. That requires all establishments, such as restaurants, cinemas, gyms and cultural institutions, to operate with lower capacity. The establishments can also choose to allow only vaccinated visitors and keep the full capacity.
