Ukraine has recorded 2,472 new cases of COVID-19, some 7,815 recoveries and 166 related deaths over the past 24 hours, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“Ukraine has registered 2,472 new daily cases of the coronavirus infection as of May 4, 2021, including 122 children and 22 medical workers. Also, 1,591 people have been admitted to hospitals. Medics have recorded 166 fatalities and 7,815 recoveries over the past day,” Stepanov said on Facebook on Tuesday morning.
The day before, on May 3, some 2,758 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded, on May 2, some 5,094 new cases were recorded, on May 1, some 8,549 new coronavirus infections were reported, on April 30, some 10,072 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded.
Since the pandemic began, Ukraine has recorded a total of 2,088,410 cases of COVID-19, including 44,916 deaths and 1,689,630 recoveries.
Over the past day, the largest number of confirmed cases was registered in Donetsk (324), Cherkasy (253), Dnipropetrovsk (220), Kharkiv (191) and Odesa (168) regions.
A total of 756,022 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 since the vaccination campaign started in Ukraine, among them 919 people on May 3.
The Adonis medical group intends to preserve and develop the direction associated with medical tourism, the group’s development director Vitaliy Hyrin has said.
“This is a very promising and for me this is the most interesting direction in business development. We work with platforms and agencies. We have a representative office in various countries. This is a large area of our business,” he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Hyrin, Adonis’ revenues from medical tourism prior to the COVID-19 epidemic accounted for about a third of the group’s total income.
“At the times prior to COVID-19 pandemic, it was about 35%. When COVID-19 pandemic began, we tried to maintain this direction, pushing it at the expense of other businesses,” he said.
Vaccination against COVID-19 with the vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech (trade name Comirnaty) will begin from Kyiv region on April 18, its starts throughout Ukraine on April 19, said chief sanitary doctor, Deputy Minister of Health Viktor Liashko.
“This vaccine will first of all be used to vaccinate personnel and residents of nursing homes, then employees of the State Emergency Service and border guards,” he told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.
Liashko explained that the vaccines will be distributed in 1,170 doses in each of the regions and the city of Kyiv. Together with them, dilution bank, syringes and boxes for the safe disposal of medical waste will be delivered.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has allocated an additional UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against COVID-19, the Ministry of Finance said.
“On April 14, a government resolution was adopted on an additional direction from the state budget of funds in the amount of UAH 6.5 billion for the purchase of vaccines against acute respiratory disease COVID-19. This decision was agreed on the same day by the Verkhovna Rada budget committee,” the statement said.
As the ministry noted, taking into account the corresponding expenses in the past year, the total amount of state budget expenditures for the purchase of vaccines is UAH 11.4 billion.
The Ministry of Finance also indicated that it is planned to vaccinate 24 million people, or 70% of the adult population, by the end of 2021. However, this requires almost 6 million vaccinations every month from May to the end of the year (on average, over 250,000 vaccinations per day), which the Ministry of Finance considers a challenge for the Ministry of Health in the context of timely procurement and delivery to Ukraine, as well as organization of vaccination.
“For this, it is necessary to ensure the receipt of almost 48 million doses of vaccines, taking into account 8 million doses that should be received free of charge under the COVAX mechanism,” the ministry said.
Immunization of Ukrainians with the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Chinese company Sinovac (CoronaVac) will start on Tuesday, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday. “The Ministry of Health has completed all the processes of testing and laboratory control of the vaccine and today we are starting the process of vaccination with this vaccine,” he said.
Stepanov said that 215,000 doses of the vaccine have already been delivered to Ukraine, the remaining 1.7 million doses will be delivered in April-May.
According to him, the vaccine will be used for vaccinations of low-mobility groups of the population, social workers, teachers who will take part in the External Independent Evaluation (ZNO), Olympians, Paralympians who are preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, employees of the National Police, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, workers of critical infrastructure.
Stepanov said that 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine are expected to be delivered during the week as part of the COVAX initiative. This vaccine is planned to vaccinate citizens staying at boarding schools, homes for the elderly, as well as employees of these institutions.
Ukraine is set to provide the opportunity to be vaccinated against coronavirus (COVID-19) to 70% of its adult population by the end of 2021, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said.
“In order to achieve herd immunity, 60% of the adult population must be vaccinated. We would like to increase that level to 70%. At least, to give them the opportunity to be vaccinated,” Stepanov said at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
The healthcare system is capable of administering that many shots, he said.
“Ukraine has 11,500 vaccination stations, and each station is capable of administering about 40-50 shots per day. That means the country can administer up to 450,000-500,000 shots per day. Surely, we are not using every available vaccination station just yet. The number of shots we are hoping to administer ranges from five million to seven million per month. That would be enough,” Stepanov said.
Ukraine has signed contracts for the delivery of 22 million doses of vaccines, and contracts for another 15 million doses will be concluded shortly, he said.
