On Oct. 7, the Health Ministry announced a list of state bodies for whose employees vaccination against COVID-19 is to be compulsory.
According to a statement on the ministry’s website, all employees working for central, regional and municipal government bodies, as well as all members of staff at every state or private nursery, school and university must be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the duration of the adaptive quarantine period imposed by the government.
The order will take effect on Nov. 7. Employees who do not get a vaccine by this date will be suspended without pay.
Education workers and government officials come into contact with many people every day, and therefore have a high risk of coronavirus infection, according to Health Minister Viktor Liashko, who emphasized that almost all those who are hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
“This decision aims to protect the health of Ukrainians and their loved ones, creating a safe environment in educational and government institutions,” Liashko said.
The announcement comes as the government tries to find new ways to encourage Ukraine’s population to get vaccinated in the face of widespread skepticism about the need to do so.
Despite COVID-19 vaccines being available to the Ukrainian public since Feb. 24, only 15% of the country’s population have received at least one shot.
According to a recent poll, 56% of Ukrainian adults do not want to get a jab, and 52% object to compulsory vaccination.
The low vaccine uptake has pushed new daily cases back up to over 15,000 on Oct. 7, the highest total since April. Twelve of the country’s 24 regions are currently in the “orange” quarantine zone, the second most severe of four states of quarantine.
