Ukraine must apply extra efforts, resume vaccination to overcome COVID-19 – Chief Sanitary Doctor

KYIV. March 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine must apply extra efforts and resume vaccination at the pre-war level to overcome the COVID-19 coronavirus disease, Chief Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin, who is also the Deputy Health Minister of Ukraine, has said.

“In order to minimize the consequences of COVID-19, Ukraine must make extra efforts to resume vaccination at the levels of the pre-war period. All over the world and in Europe, vaccination rates are at a very high level, and this has made it possible for European countries not only to lift quarantine restrictions but also come closer to the fact that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is much less than in those countries that have an insufficient vaccination coverage,” he told a press briefing on Wednesday.

Kuzin also said that at present, the Kraken COVID variant, which spreads more rapidly than other strains, is becoming predominant in Ukraine.

“Against the background of being constantly in bomb shelters and being unable to adhere to anti-epidemiological standards, the risk that more people will catch COVID-19 is quite high,” he said.

In turn, Head of the National Technical Expert Group on Immunoprophylaxis Fedir Lapiy said that the situation with COVID-19 vaccination in Ukraine is much worse than in countries that talk about ending the epidemic, and an increase in the incidence rate is recorded in Ukraine.

“Over the past five weeks, we have had a fairly stable increase in the COVID-19 incidence rate. We had a lull in early January, however, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has been increasing in the recent five weeks. We have not yet reached the October peak, but we already have around 15,000 confirmed cases over the past week, we have an increase in the number of hospitalized people and 100 deaths per week,” he said.

At the same time, Lapiy noted that forecasts regarding the end of the COVID-19 epidemic appear regularly.

“There were cautious forecasts for the end of the epidemic until the end of 2021, then there were forecasts until the end of 2022. Of course, we can say that the weight of these forecasts is growing. We can see that COVID-19 vaccines are effective and the question is not whether we will defeat the epidemic, in 2023 or 2024. The question is about the price we will pay, whether it will become a common cold that will not require hospitalization and will not take lives,” he said.