Ukraine has extended its COVID-19 adaptive quarantine restrictions until Dec. 31, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko announced during the Sept. 20 meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.
Under the adaptive quarantine system, Ukraine color-codes its regions green, yellow, orange or red, based on the severity of the outbreak there. Each of Ukraine’s 24 oblasts will be assigned a color depending on the local situation with new infections and the number of available hospital beds.
All of Ukraine will shortly be moved from green to yellow. The date on which that will happen will be announced on Sept. 21, after the meeting of the State Commission for Technogenic and Ecological Safety and Emergencies.
Quarantine restrictions are expected to strengthen on Sept. 22.
Zakarpattia was the first region to go “yellow” on Sept. 20.
What are the yellow zone restrictions?
Mass sporting and cultural events can only be held if the venue is two-thirds occupied or if there is no more than one attendant per four square meters.
Cinemas and other cultural institutions must not exceed two-thirds capacity or one half capacity for each hall or theater.
Only four people can sit at a single table in restaurants or cafes, and the distance between the tables has to be at least 1.5 meters.
Gyms and fitness centers must have no more than one visitor per 10 square meters.
Vaccinated people will be exempt from restrictions
Venue owners can get around the yellow zone restrictions if at least 80% of their visitors and staff have received at least one vaccine dose or tested negative for COVID-19 in the last 72 hours. Businesses may choose to turn away unvaccinated customers, according to the Cabinet of Ministers resolution, announced on Sept. 13.
People can prove their status by showing vaccination documents. These include a digital “green” certificate for people with both doses and a “yellow” one for people with only one dose. The certificates come in the form of a QR code in the Diia mobile app.
International vaccination certificates, prophylactic vaccination cards, and negative test results from a laboratory can also be used.
“Following the practice of European countries, as well as the United States, we propose to bring the quality of life of the vaccinated population against COVID-19 back to normal,” Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on Sept.6.
Thousands of schools may be closed
Schools will be allowed to continue working in the yellow zone if 80% of employees have “yellow” or “green” COVID-certificates. Only 5,350 out of more than 14,000 schools across the country meet these requirements as of Sept. 17, according to regional authorities.
Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine Serhiy Shkarlet urged educators not to delay getting vaccinated.
“The new school year continues in the usual format. However, it depends on each of us whether this will change,” he said in a ministry statement.
The ministry has not yet explained what school attendance will look like in the yellow zone.
However, Volodymyr Bozhynskyi, head of the preschool and school education directorate at the Ministry of Education and Science, told TV channel Ukraine 24 that students would have online classes or a mixed form of education.
“Part of the responsibility for education will fall on parents,” the official said.
According to a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 57% of Ukrainian schoolchildren consider teaching quality in online classes to be lower than in the classroom and 51% have a negative attitude towards distance learning.
Majority of Ukrainians don’t want to get vaccinated, poll says
Even though mass vaccination is the only way out of quarantine restrictions, accomplishing it may be difficult.
More than 56% of Ukrainians haven’t been vaccinated and do not plan on it, according to a poll by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. The refusal rate is among the highest in the world, compared to countries where surveys were conducted.
Right now, 52% of the population is against mandatory vaccination, with 23% in favor. Respondents who have been sick or are likely to get sick with COVID-19 are more likely to advocate for mandatory vaccination.
According to the poll, most often, Ukrainians refuse to get a jab because they think “vaccines have not yet been sufficiently tested”. The main argument in favor of vaccination is the desire to work during the lockdown.
State of vaccination
As of Sept. 18, 5.1 million Ukrainians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and additionally, over 1.2 million people have received the first of the two doses. The vaccination campaign started on Feb. 24.
In the last 24 hours, 21,118 people received their first dose of vaccine, while 14,911 received the second dose, completing their vaccination.
Minister of Health Viktor Lyashko has announced that the fifth and final stage of COVID-19 vaccination in Ukraine began on July 21. This means that all willing adults are now able to get a jab.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Health also now allows voluntary COVID-19 vaccination of children over the age of 12 with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, starting July 30.
Children over 12 can get the Pfizer vaccine if they have a high risk of severe disease related to COVID-19, are traveling abroad where the vaccine is mandatory or have already received the first dose of Pfizer in another country.
Ukraine currently vaccinates its people with Pfizer, Sinovac, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines. On July 5, Ukraine authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for use.
On July 21, Kyiv’s primary mass vaccination center started offering Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to everyone, as well as CoronaVac.
