The 22nd Ukraine-EU summit will be the first bilateral EU summit with a third country held physically in Brussels since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The European Council said on Friday that the EU side will be represented by Presidents of the European Council Charles Michel and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Ukraine will be represented by President Volodymyr Zelensky. High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell will also participate.
During the meeting, the leaders will review bilateral relations, including the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the EU support to Ukraine; the next steps in the implementation of the Association Agreement, including its Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area; the state of reforms in Ukraine.
Leaders will also discuss the conflict in eastern Ukraine, recent developments in Belarus and further regional and foreign policy issues.
It is expected that at 15:30 Brussels (16:30 Kyiv time) on Tuesday, EU leaders will meet the Ukrainian president, and at 17:50 Brussels time (18:50 Kyiv time) a press conference is scheduled to be held in the virtual mode.
Ukraine’s neighboring countries, with the exception of Moldova, have entered the green zone for the spread of COVID-19, according to data published on the website of the Ministry of Health as of September 11.
The “red” zone includes countries with an incidence rate per 100,000 population over the past 14 days higher than in Ukraine (88.1). In total, there are as many as 47 countries.
The “red” zone, as before, includes Moldova (152.4 per 100,000). Romania moved from the “red” to the “green” zone (85.5 per 100,000).
France, Spain, Montenegro, U. S., Israel are also among the countries of the “red” zone.
The countries of the “green” zone include, in particular, India, Czech Republic, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Great Britain, Slovenia, Turkey, Egypt, Georgia, Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Bulgaria and Greece.
The closest neighbors of Ukraine, included in the green zone, are Belarus (25.7 per 100,000), Poland (21.5 per 100,000), Slovakia (24.8 per 100,000), Hungary (45.3 per 100,000), and the Russian Federation (44.5 per 100,000).
Kyiv-based Biocor Technology LTD, a Ukrainian producer of test systems, has announcement the development of PCR tests for coronavirus (COVID-19).
“At the beginning of July 2020, the diagnostics test kits for SARS-CoV-2 underwent state registration. Laboratories have started using the development. The price of the tests for SARS-CoV-2 is three times lower than the products of western producers,” the company said on a press release.
The tests are made of raw materials produced by Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Biocor Technology LTD will focus on the production and improvement of the product and will sell it through distributors, the company head, Oleksiy Sayutin, said.
The company has been developing PCR tests since 2018. It started to work on the tests for SARS-CoV-2 in February 2020.
Biocor Technology LTD produces various PCR tests. It is certified in line with international standards ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2016.
According to the state register, the founder and the beneficiary of the company is Maryna Byrsia.
Biopharma pharmaceutical company (Kyiv) has accumulated about 150 liters of plasma from 118 donors who have had coronavirus (COVID-19) for the production of the drug for COVID-19, and the same amount is needed to create an experimental series.
The company informed Interfax-Ukraine that it is necessary to collect 300 liters to create the first experimental series of drugs.
“Not everyone who is diagnosed has developed antibodies, but they are the main weapon against the disease. However, there are cases of asymptomatic course of the disease. That is why everyone who donate plasma in our centers is tested for antibodies to COVID-19,” said the president of the company, Kostiantyn Yefymenko.
He called on Ukrainians, representatives of government, business and public activists to help attract donors who have overcome the coronavirus.
He said that if antibodies are detected, the collected plasma is used to create a drug for coronavirus, if there are no antibodies, then other drugs are made from donated blood.
Biopharma also reports that clinical trials of use of Bioven in the symptomatic treatment of coronavirus are completed. This drug is also produced from donated plasma. In particular, according to the company, during the Bioven research, Ukrainian and international experts noted that it reduces the severity of the cytokine storm and helps stabilize the condition of seriously ill patients.
“The preliminary results of the studies are extremely encouraging: everyone who took Bioven, observe the stabilization of the general condition up to two days after taking the drug, followed by a decrease in manifestations of respiratory failure,” the company reported.
As reported, clinical effectiveness trials of domestic drugs AMIZON MAX (produced by Farmak), Amiksin IC (Interchem), Bioven (Biopharma) and Corvitin (BHFZ) are underway in Ukraine.
Financial stability in Ukraine will be kept even if the second wave of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) begins, and all major banks in the country will be able to survive it, Board Chairman of Raiffeisen Bank Aval Oleksandr Pysaruk has said.
“All major banks – systemic, large, medium – I am sure they will survive… Some of the small banks may suffer, but it will not affect anything… I don’t see any threat to financial stability,” he said in interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Pysaruk, after the work that the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) did to reform the banking sector, fairly stable banks have remained on the market.
“The Ukrainian banking system, like Ukraine as a whole, from the point of view of macroeconomic indicators has entered this crisis in better condition than at any moment in the past 30 years since independence… Largely thanks to the work of the NBU and the Ministry of Finance, by the way, with the IMF support,” he said.
He said that, according to the NBU Financial Stability Report, nine banks in the country may need additional capitalization, and two of them are state-owned. “Two well-known state-owned banks, which often lack capital, because their management quality is not good enough, the story is complicated. If they do not have enough capital again, the state will contribute it again,” he said.
The first after the coronavirus lockdown charter flight, carried out by JONIKA Airlines, has departed from the Kyiv International Airport to Tirana, Albania, with Ukrainian tourists on board.
“Albania is the first country to receive tourists from Ukraine. Today, on June 26, the first charter flight has departed from Ukraine’s Kyiv Airport following the resumption of air traffic with other countries of the world,” the airport said on its Facebook page.
According to the message, the plane took off from Kyiv at 10:00.
