Ukraine is already at the peak of the current wave of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Liashko has said at a briefing on air of the Rada TV channel.
“We already have the peak incidence, because we record 41,000 cases a day,” the minister said.
He also added that during this COVID-19 wave, the number of cases is growing, but not the number of hospitalizations, which in turn reduces a burden on hospital care.
At the same time, according to Liashko, there is a large burden on primary medical care, so the Ministry of Health has taken management decisions that should reduce a burden on family doctors. The latest of these solutions is the introduction of remote calling in sick.
The full transition of all medical institutions of Ukraine to medical reports on temporary disability will take place from September 1, 2021, and a transitional model for the introduction of sick leave e-certificates will be in effect until August 31, Minister of Health Viktor Liashko said.
“This means that from June to August, medical institutions will fill out both medical reports on temporary disability and issue paper certificates. The decision on the type of document that is issued to the patient to confirm his temporary disability will be made by the doctor in accordance with the requirements of the Ministry of Health,” Liashko wrote on his Facebook page on Friday evening.
The minister said that the order on some issues of medical reports on temporary disability and their verification has already been signed and passed the examination of the Ministry of Justice.
“Patients no longer have to run to the hospital for a paper sick leave certificate, take it to work to record the fact of temporary incapacity for work, and employers will get away from paperwork with the Pension Fund and the Social Insurance Fund in processing sick leave payments to their employees,” the minister said.
The Ministry of Health is awaiting the final decision of the European Union regarding immune passports and their introduction in Ukraine, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during the “Hour of Questions” to the government in the Verkhovna Rada on Friday.
“On April 13, the EU presented a draft immune passports, which, in addition to the vaccination mark, provide for a mark on the PCR testing and the amount of antibodies. This caused a heated discussion. We expect a final decision from them,” he said.
“For their part, specialists from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Digital Transformation are working with European partners regarding the required data. We are fully prepared for any development of events, because the central component of e-Health is ready to upload data,” the minister added.
HEALTH MINISTER, HEALTH MINISTRY OF UKRAINE, IMMUNE PASSPORTS
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.
The Ministry of Health on Tuesday will hold a conference call with the regions to increase the speed of vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, 19,118 people have been inoculated. I am not satisfied with these numbers, I set a different task for the speed of vaccination. By the end of the previous week, we had to reach 10,000 people per day and increase this number. We reached a little more than 2,000-3,000 vaccinations per day. Today we will hold an appropriate conference call, which will be attended by the heads of the Regional State Administrations, the leadership of the President’s Office, and directorates of health departments that coordinate vaccinations locally,” he said.
In addition, the minister noted that 185 cases of side effects from vaccination were recorded in Ukraine.
“As of today, out of almost 20,000 vaccinations, only 185 reports of side effects from immunization have been recorded. No serious side effects from vaccination have been recorded in Ukraine. Only one case required medical supervision, when a person had a fever for two days after vaccination,” he said.
Stepanov also said that as of March 9, some 190,230 people had already signed up for the vaccination waiting list.
The incidence of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Ukraine continues to decline, and the number of hospitalizations is also decreasing, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said during a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Last week, some 25,500 cases of COVID-19 incidence were detected, which is less than in the previous week (27,157 cases). If you look at the statistics, we see the situation is stabilized. For example, in the first week of December, some 89,000 cases were recorded. The number of hospitalized patients is also changing – in the first week of December there were about 28,000 people, and as of Monday 17,911 people in medical facilities,” he said.
According to the minister, the number of antigen tests is increasing. “During the week, some 144,248 PCR tests were done. The number of tests with rapid antigen tests is also growing, some 52,222 studies were conducted, which is 20,000 more than the previous week. Ukraine is provided with test systems,” he said.
