As of October 20, already five Ukrainian regions are in the "red" quarantine zone. Given the dynamics of the spread of coronavirus in the country, this list may expand in the near future. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated during today's government meeting that the authorities did not plan to impose a nationwide lockdown and, accordingly, stop the economy.
The Ukrainian government is betting on the mass vaccination of the population. The Prime Minister stressed that the transition of a region to the "red" zone would foster people to be immunized, but urged to get vaccinated until that moment.
«We are constantly involving new hospitals and increasing the number of doctors who are fighting the coronavirus. However, 94.2% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 in a week were unvaccinated. These numbers speak for themselves. Vaccination saves lives.»
Denys Shmyhal
The Prime Minister of Ukraine
Context. The Ukrainian Ministry of Health expects the peak of the current wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and peak burdens on the healthcare system in late October—mid-November.
On October 18, the "red" quarantine zone was imposed in five regions (Kherson, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia), but the incidence rate exceeds the permissible value in more than half of the regions. Vinnytsia, Zakarpattia, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Rivne, and Ternopil regions are now in the "yellow" zone, the rest are in the "orange" one.
Over the past 24 hours, 18,912 new patients were identified in the country and 495 deaths were recorded. On October 19, a record number of people were vaccinated in the country—226,587.
