All that is important to know as of April 21.
Adaptive quarantine continues in Ukraine. The population is interested in when all restrictions will finally be lifted, however, this will probably not happen in the near future, reports with reference to.
So far, quarantine is not planned to be canceled. The morbidity situation is still difficult, and 12 areas are in the red zone.
The Cabinet of Ministers has extended the adaptive quarantine introduced in Ukraine due to the coronavirus. The restrictions will be valid until June 30, 2021. At the same time, from February 24, Ukraine returned to the division into 4 quarantine zones.
Now in the red zone are:
Kiev and Kiev region,
Lviv region,
Zaporozhye region
Odessa region,
Zhytomyr Oblast,
Chernivtsi region,
Sumy region,
Nikolaevkskaya area,
Kharkov region,
Khmelnitsky region,
Chernihiv region,
Poltava region.
Lockdown in Lviv
Due to the difficult situation with the coronavirus in Lviv, a lockdown was introduced on March 19. Shopping centers, cafes, restaurants, non-food stores were closed in the city.
At first, the lockdown was supposed to last 10 days, but since the situation did not improve, it was repeatedly extended. According to the latest data, it was decided to extend the lockdown in the city until May 4. At the same time, the city commission on fuel and energy security and emergency situations decided to eliminate some quarantine restrictions.
What quarantine restrictions will be canceled
from April 19, pupils of grades 1-4 return to their desks
from April 19, non-food markets may resume their work under a separate protocol;
in addition, summer grounds and terraces of catering establishments are opening.
Lockdown in Kiev
In Kiev, they announced a lockdown on March 18. Quarantine restrictions started working on March 20. Then the capital was on the list of the orange zone. After the decision of the city authorities to strengthen the quarantine, the region and the city still ended up in the red zone.
Already on April 5, the quarantine in Kiev was significantly strengthened:
All schools and kindergartens were closed;
All public transport — ground and metro — operates on special passenger passes.
The heads of institutions, enterprises, establishments had to send employees to work remotely.
Food fairs are closed from April 1st.
At first, such restrictions were introduced until April 16, and then extended until April 30. By the way, the city authorities have allowed restaurants and cafes to equip summer grounds from April 15. However, while the red zone will operate in the city, they will not be able to receive visitors.
When can the quarantine in Kiev be weakened
Earlier, the head of the parliamentary committee on the health of the nation Mikhail Radutsky, the situation with the coronavirus in Kiev has improved. In the near future, the capital may leave the red quarantine zone.
On April 21, Maxim Stepanov expressed hope that quarantine would be gradually mitigated in the capital by April 30. As the head of the Ministry of Health noted, now there is a high probability that Kiev will leave the red zone by the end of the month.
How is vaccination in Ukraine
On February 23, the first batch of vaccines from the Indian company AstraZeneca arrived in Ukraine. On February 24, the first person was vaccinated in Ukraine — a resuscitator from Cherkassy Yevhen Gorenko.
On March 1, the head of the Ministry of Health Stepanov was publicly vaccinated with an Indian drug. Following him, Vladimir Zelensky was vaccinated with AstraZeneca.
On April 13, vaccination began with the Chinese drug CoronaVac manufactured by Sinovac Biotech.
On April 16, the first batch (117 thousand doses) of the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine arrived in Ukraine as part of the global COVAX initiative. Pfizer was officially vaccinated on April 18th.
The third wave of COVID-19 in Ukraine
The chief sanitary doctor Viktor Lyashko confirmed on March 4 that the first infected with the British strain of coronavirus were recorded in Ukraine. This has already been warned by the WHO. Prime Minister Denis Shmygal also said on March 4: the third wave of coronavirus has begun in the country.
Now the «British» strain has already been diagnosed in many regions of Ukraine: these are Bukovina, Ivano-Frankivsk, Sumy, Zhitomir, Kiev, Odessa, Kirovograd regions. «South African» strain
At the same time, the National Academy of Sciences said that Ukraine has passed the plateau of the third wave of COVID-19. According to scientists, the incidence should decline, and the epidemic situation should improve.
Mortality has risen
In April, mortality from coronavirus increased significantly in Ukraine. Yes, during the day on April 6, 481 people died from the disease in Ukraine.
The number of hospitalized people has also started to rise. Ivano-Frankivsk was the first to approach the critical level. In the «coronavirus» hospitals in the region, 100% bed occupancy was recorded. To save the infected in the region, for the first time in the history of the pandemic, a mobile hospital was deployed.
Is it possible to re-enter lockdown
Denis Shmyhal said on April 14 that a nationwide lockdown in Ukraine would not be introduced, because it makes no sense. Adaptive Quarantine is working and yielding results.
The fact that some areas have moved from the red zone to the yellow indicates that the adaptive quarantine model is working. As we said, there is no point in closing the whole country for a lockdown now,
— said the prime minister.
What do the doctor’s say
Doctor of Medical Sciences and Immunologist Andriy Volyansky noted that Ukraine has passed only half of the way to reduce the incidence. Despite the positive result, the situation may worsen. Volyansky added that the lockdown is a powerful tool, but it cannot be used again in the near future.
Was the introduction of a winter lockdown in Ukraine justified?
Experts predicted an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases after the Christmas holidays. Therefore, the government’s decision was to a certain extent logical.
In any case, if people get together after the lockdown, there may still be a certain increase in the incidence. Because the return of communication and contacts between people always leads to this,
— explained to us the epidemiologist Lyudmila Mukharskaya.
President of the Ukrainian Medical Club, Honored Health Worker and Practitioner Ivan Soroka also believed that there were no absolute signs for the introduction of a hard lockdown, except for political ones.
What are the results of the lockdown
The number of new patients with coronavirus during the lockdown did gradually decrease. Stepanov stressed that the enhanced quarantine helped stabilize the situation with the coronavirus in Ukraine and thanked for its compliance.
In early December, the number of patients in hospitals with COVID-19 was 10 thousand more patients than now. In addition, 30 612 cases of the disease per week are almost 14 thousand less than in the past.
When can we forget about distance and masks?
With the start of vaccination against COVID-19, the world is more and more confident that the end of the pandemic and the end of quarantine in particular are not far off.
In Ukraine, as noted by Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal, quarantine will definitely last until the end of February 2021. However, according to him, so far no country is able to predict when this all will finally end — «it looks like this will not happen in 2021»:
To say that this summer is over? I’m sure it won’t end. We will live with coronavirus, according to forecasts, for the next two years. The question is: what format of our coexistence will be, but it still remains a secret.
Lyudmila Mukharskaya, in turn, recalls that Ukraine is only part of the world in which a pandemic exists. Therefore, if the situation improves everywhere, then it will already be possible to say that our recommendations regarding distance and masks will be softened.
Of course, the vaccine should improve the situation. But, according to the expert, it won’t be very fast. After all, the very process of vaccination of such a large number of people so that a certain collective immunity arises is long.
They talk about two years, but we do not yet know how much of this vaccine will be. That is, perhaps in a year the situation will somehow become clearer — if we get vaccinated. Now talk about the time when the mask mode, distance, etc. will be removed. — early,
— the epidemiologist concludes.
Ivan Soroka, President of the Ukrainian Medical Club, is convinced that we will never return to such calm times, which were before 2020, and certain quarantine restrictions will still remain with us. In addition, new strains of the virus have emerged and we need to monitor whether the vaccines currently on the market will be effective against them, whether they will give one hundred percent immunity and or require the vaccine strains to be renewed annually, as we do with influenza viruses.
The sooner we start to vaccinate the population, the faster we can talk about a real stabilization of the situation,
— explained the specialist.
The most likely scenario for the end of the pandemic, based on POLITICO’s interviews with leading virologists, looks like this:
a constant decrease in the number of cases of COVID-19 — until the fall of 2021;
normalization of daily life — within two years.
The exact time depends on a number of factors, such as the availability of rapid tests for COVID-19, the effectiveness of the vaccine, and people’s compliance with mask wearing requirements and keeping distance.
The vaccine must be effective and widespread enough to achieve herd immunity — when people, in theory, can safely take off their masks and attend public events. This will happen when about 60-70% of the population is immune to the disease — then the virus simply cannot multiply.
Nevertheless, the world will probably live with COVID-19 forever, even after mass vaccinations. However, if its level is high enough, covid will become just another disease to which the majority of the population has a certain level of immunity.
Chronology of quarantine in Ukraine
March 11, 2020 — the government introduced strict quarantine throughout the country;
March 12 — May 11, 2020 — strict quarantine in Ukraine;
May 12 — November 13, 2020 — adaptive quarantine;
November 14 — November 30, 2020 — weekend quarantine;
November 30, 2020 — February 28, 2021 — planned adaptive quarantine;
January 8 — January 24, 2021 — planned hard quarantine.
From January 25, 2021 — nationwide quarantine with orange zone restrictions;
From February 24, 2021 — nationwide quarantine with yellow zone restrictions;