Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19 Worsening in Ukraine

On Monday, 22 March, having analysed the transmission dynamics of coronavirus infection, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine designated the Sumy region as the strictest “red” quarantine zone.

Over the past three days, the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations in the Sumy region exceeded the permissible levels: the number of detected cases (24.7% against the norm of 20%) and the number of hospitalisations (67.4% against 60%).

Apart from the Sumy region, the “red zone” also includes Kyiv city, Zhytomyr, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Odesa and Chernivtsi regions.

The “orange” zone covers 11 regions: Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Luhansk, Lviv, Mykolayiv, Poltava, Ternopil, Khmelnytsky, Cherkasy and Chernihiv.

Other areas remain in the “yellow” quarantine zone.

As Minister of Health of Ukraine Maksym Stepanov posted on his Facebook page, more than 30,000 COVID-19 patients have died since the beginning of the pandemic in the country.

The official also stressed that the second stage of coronavirus vaccination would start in Ukraine on 22 March. In addition to mobile teams, 565 more points are set up for the vaccination campaign. At this stage, vaccination of people at extremely high risk for COVID-19 – family doctors – begins. Moreover, vaccination of social workers, public health workers and people aged 80 and over is also planned upon the arrival of new batches of vaccine (in late March). Vaccination of health workers of the first stage will also continue.

Meanwhile, Olha Holubovska, a leading infectious disease specialist at the Ministry of Health, wrote on her Facebook page that severe and very severe forms of the disease critically dominate among COVID-19 patients currently hospitalised in Ukraine.

Bohdan Marusyak