You're reading: COVID-19 in Ukraine: 10,057 new cases, 194 new deaths, 9,568 total vaccinations

Ukraine has registered 10,057 new cases of COVID-19 as of 9 a.m. on March 4, bringing the total number of cases in the country since the start of the pandemic to nearly 1.4 million.

In the past 24 hours, 4,837 COVID-19 patients have recovered and 194 have died. Over 1.18 million people have recovered from COVID-19 and 26,591 have died since the pandemic hit Ukraine.

On March 2, Ukraine had the record number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in one day — 3,486 people.

Ukrainian laboratories have carried out 38,068 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, 16,265 antibody tests and 28,753 rapid antigen tests in the past day. Over 7 million PCR tests have been conducted in Ukraine since the start of the pandemic.

The largest numbers of new cases have been recorded in Zhytomyr Oblast (888), Kyiv (868), Vinnytsya Oblast (827), Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (776) and Zakarpattia Oblast (676).

Ukraine’s daily COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries from Jan. 10, 2021, to March 3, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health. (Kyiv Post)

Vaccination in Ukraine began on Feb. 27 and by March 4, a total of 9,568 people have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute.

In the past 24 hours, the largest number of vaccinations was recorded in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (350) and Kyiv Oblast (310). President Volodymyr Zelensky received his first dose of vaccine in Donetsk Oblast during his trip to the front line.

To date, Ukraine has received 500,000 doses of vaccine produced by India’s Serum Institute. Ukraine has ordered a total of 17 million doses from India, including vaccines developed by British-Swedish pharmaceutical AstraZeneca and U.S. biotech firm Novavax. Altogether, Ukraine expects to receive around 22 million doses in 2021.

On March 1, the Health Ministry started accepting online and telephone applications from Ukrainians who want to be put on the waiting list for the vaccine.

On Jan. 25, Ukraine reopened after the lockdown that has been in place since Jan. 8. The work of all non-essential businesses has now resumed.

Ukraine’s daily new COVID-19 cases and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the most accurate way of diagnosing the novel coronavirus, between Jan. 23, 2020 and March 3, 2021. All data was released by the Ministry of Health. (Kyiv Post)

According to a law passed by the government on Jan. 13, businesses have to refuse to service any customer who’s not wearing a mask and call the police if the person refuses to put it on. A mask has to cover both the nose and mouth.

Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said that the ministry had no plans to impose a new country-wide lockdown in March or April because the January lockdown yielded good results and stabilized the situation. Still, on Feb. 17, Stepanov said that Ukraine will extend its COVID-19 quarantine restrictions until April 30.

Starting Feb. 24, the country returned to a so-called “adaptive quarantine” where each oblast is assigned one of four epidemiological levels, depending on the COVID-19 situation there. There are green, yellow, orange and red levels. A red status means that a lockdown will be imposed locally.

Initially, all of Ukraine was designated yellow, meaning most of the current restrictions will stay in force.

Three Ukrainian oblasts, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi and Zakarpattia, had to shut down their entertainment businesses and restaurants for a week starting Feb. 22 because of spikes in their numbers of cases, Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said on Feb. 19.

Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast has also imposed the “red” quarantine level, shutting down all non-essential businesses and banning mass events on Feb. 22-28.