A laboratory for the production of diagnostic test systems was opened in the territory of Ecopolis HTZ business park in Kharkiv on June 24.
According to the press service of Kharkiv City Council, the opening ceremony was attended by secretary of the city council Ihor Terekhov, president of DCH Group, which includes Ecopolis HTZ, Oleksandr Yaroslavsky and chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin.
“I am sure that these test systems will be in demand all over the world. And it is great that young people, our students, who will be able to practice here, mastering new technologies, will work here. We want to ensure that the best specialists stayed in our country,” the press service quotes Terekhov.
According to Yaroslavsky, $ 2 million was invested in the laboratory. It will be engaged in the development and production of molecular biological diagnostic test systems, in particular, PCR tests for the detection of COVID-19, including the new Delta strain, PCR tests for influenza, and in the long term – for cancer.
The next stage in the formation of Ecopolis HTZ, according to Yaroslavsky, will be the presentation of a Kharkiv-made tram, which is scheduled for autumn.
As reported, Ecopolis HTZ business park is a long-term investment project of Oleksandr Yaroslavsky’s DCH Group. It is being created on the basis of Kharkiv Tractor Plant, and the plant itself will become an anchor resident of the industrial cluster.
Industrial production in Ukraine in March 2021 increased by 2.1% compared to March 2020, which was the first month of the introduction of quarantine due to COVID-19, and the growth adjusted for the effect of calendar days was 2.4%, the State Statistics Service has said.
The department indicated that the growth of industrial production in March 2021 amounted to 10.9% against the previous month, and on a seasonally adjusted basis – 1.8%.
In the supply of electricity, gas, steam and conditioned air in March 2021 from March 2020, an increase was 7.3%, in processing industry – 2.5%, while the reduction in production in extracting industry was 1.5%.
The State Statistics Service clarified that in the first quarter of 2021 in relation to the same period a year earlier, industrial production in Ukraine decreased by 2%, in particular in mining industry – by 2.8%, processing – by 3.3%, although the supply of electricity, gas and steam gains 4.1% due to substantially colder weather.
As reported, industrial production in Ukraine in 2020 fell by 5.2% after falling by 0.5% a year earlier. At the same time, in December last year, for the first time since May 2019, its growth was recorded compared to the same period last year – by 4.8%.
The Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac will supply another 5.325 million doses of Coronavac vaccine against COVID-19 to Ukraine, said chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Ihor Kuzin.
“Today we have signed commitments on Sinovac and it is planned that another 5.325 million doses of vaccine will be purchased by Crown Agents,” he said on Wednesday during an online discussion entitled “Why Ukrainians don’t want to be vaccinated.”
Kuzin said additional supplies of Coronavac vaccine are expected in July.
“We expect that all these volumes should come to Ukraine during July,” he said.
In order to prevent the penetration of the Delta coronavirus strain, Ukraine must return tight control and PCR tests at the border for visitors from Russia, Great Britain, Turkey and Egypt, said Mykhailo Radutsky, chairman of the parliamentary committee for the nation’s health, medical care and medical insurance. “On June 17, the government relaxed the quarantine. In Ukraine, as a state of the ‘green zone,’ they canceled the norm on compulsory PCR testing for citizens entering the country. I believe that it is necessary to introduce strict control for Ukrainians who return not only from Russia, Great Britain, but from resort destinations as well – Turkey, Egypt,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
In addition, Radutsky considers it necessary to maintain the norms of the mask regime and social distance and to speed up vaccination process as much as possible.
Over the past day, June 17, some 81,713 people have been vaccinated against coronavirus infection in Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine reports on the Telegram channel.
Some 57,970 people received one dose, 23,743 people were fully immunized.
During the day, 618 mobile teams and 964 vaccination stations worked.
Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 1,652,055 people have been vaccinated, of which 1,652,053 people received one dose, 337,345 people were fully immunized and received two doses (two of them received one dose abroad). A total of 1,989,398 inoculations were carried out.
The number of deaths in Ukraine in April 2021 amounted to 68,620, which is 48.5% more than in April 2020, the State Statistics Service reported on Friday. This is the highest rate of deaths since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the service, in general, since the beginning of the year, 242,670 people have died in Ukraine, which is 24.3% more than in the last leap year.
As reported, in August 2020, the number of deaths in the country was 3.9% more than in August a year earlier, in September – by 15.4%, in October – by 17.5%, in November – by 35%, in December – by 42.9%, in January of this year – by 7.7%, in February – by 9%, and in March – by 34.4%.
