Ukraine is fully included in the “yellow zone” of epidemic danger, however, the growth in the incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) is expected to resume from the middle of January, experts from Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) said.
“We at KSE expect further unloading of the medical system in the next one to two weeks, and after that, from about the middle of January, we expect an increase in COVID-19 incidence,” Head of the KSE Center for Health Economics Yuriy Hanychenko said at a weekly online briefing on Wednesday.
KSE experts do not expect Ukraine to enter the “green zone” of epidemic danger in the first quarter of 2022.
However, speaking about forecasts for 2022, Hanychenko said that Ukraine needs to reduce the incidence rate by two to three times in order to reach the “green level” of epidemic danger.
Analyst at the KSE Center for Health Economics Kateryna Kuzminova, in turn, said that over the past week, the death rate from COVID-19 in the country has decreased by 25%.
“Since the death rate is a deferred indicator and mortality trends are following the number of new cases and hospitalizations with a lag of several weeks, we expect a continuation of the decline in the coming weeks,” she said.
Commenting on the vaccination situation, KSE experts said that over the past week the rate of vaccination has decreased by 25%, but it is expected that they will be able to be compensated by the introduction of booster and additional doses of the vaccine.
Ukraine is approaching the WHO target of vaccination of 40% of the population by the end of 2021, more than 40% of the population in 20 of 25 regions of Ukraine received one dose of the vaccine, according to KSE. The highest level of vaccination is observed in Kyiv and Kyiv region (respectively 72% and 58%), the lowest in Zakarpattia (32%).
On the 30th anniversary of the official recognition of Ukraine as an independent and sovereign state, the U.S. Embassy said that relations between the countries are now stronger than ever.
“Today, we celebrate 30 years since the United States officially recognized Ukraine as an independent and sovereign state. The U.S-Ukraine relationship now stands stronger than ever as we work in partnership to ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and forge Ukraine’s prosperous, democratic, and Euro-Atlantic future,” the embassy said on Facebook on December 25.
The total amount of investments in new projects of industrial parks in Ukraine is UAH 884 million, Chairman of the Economic Affairs Parliamentary Committee Dmytro Natalukha has said.
“In less than three months, the creation of 24 industrial parks has started in Ukraine. Somewhere they are already being built, somewhere the documentation is being prepared, somewhere the city authorities have already allocated land, and somewhere the design is underway. In 13 regions of Ukraine. The total declared investment in these 24 projects is UAH 884 million. The area of these parks is 557 hectares,” he said during the third Forum of Industrial Parks held in Kyiv on Thursday.
According to him, up to 28,000 jobs can be created in these parks.
Natalukha noted that bills No. 5688 and No. 5689, establishing tax and customs incentives for participants of industrial parks, can be adopted at the first reading by the end of the year.
Currently, 52 industrial parks are already included in the register of industrial parks, management companies have been selected in 25 of them, but only eight have participants (15 participants in total).
Ukraine has registered 14,325 new cases of COVID-19, as well as 29,044 recoveries and 595 deaths in the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Health Ministry said on Wednesday. “Over 13 million people have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine! Since the beginning of vaccination for COVID-19, more than 23 million shots have been administered in Ukraine. Over the past day, November 23, Ukraine has recorded 14,325 new cases of COVID-19 (including 1,183 children and 287 medical workers), while 286,121 people have been vaccinated for COVID-19, among them 86,299 who received their first shot and 199,822 who have completed their vaccination. In the past 24 hours, 4,077 people have been hospitalized, 595 have died, and 29,044 have recovered,” the ministry said on Telegram.Since the beginning of the pandemic, Ukraine has seen a total of 3,367,461 coronavirus infections, including 2,825,641 recoveries and 82,913 deaths.As of this date, 13,000,634 people have been vaccinated for COVID-19 in Ukraine, including 13,000,632 who have received the first shot and 10,225,182 who have been fully vaccinated. As many as 23,225,814 shots have been administered to date.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a decree on the appointment of Rostyslav Shurma as Deputy Head of the President’s Office.Corresponding document No. 592/2021 was published on the website of the head of state. Shurma will be responsible for the economic block of activities of the President’s Office, the press service of the head of state said.”The preparation of programs to stimulate economic development and increase energy efficiency is among the priority tasks,” Shurma emphasized.Rostyslav Shurma is former director general of Zaporizhstal PJSC (from 2012 to 2019). In the 2019 parliamentary elections, he ran for the Verkhovna Rada as part of the Opposition Bloc party (No. 6 on the list).On May 21, 2021, he was appointed a member of the Supervisory Board of Ukroboronprom State Corporation by presidential decree No. 209/2021.As reported, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Yulia Svyrydenko, at a meeting of the Verkhovna Rada on November 4, 2021 was appointed First Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy of Ukraine.
The Ministry of Health of Ukraine is interested in attracting all concerned official religious communities in the vaccination campaign, First Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Oleksandr Komarida has said.”We see this as helping the state, citizens and parishioners. We take for granted all places that want to help people protect themselves,” said Komarida during the opening ceremony of a vaccination center in the capital’s Ar-Rahma mosque. As reported, the center will be open daily from 9:00 to 16:00. Anyone over 18 years of age can be vaccinated, as well as adolescents aged 12 and over if they have all routine vaccinations, according to the vaccination schedule.
