Health Ministry To Reduce Validity Of COVID Certificate Of Vaccination With 2 Doses From 1Y To 9M - Health Committee Head Radutskyi

Member of Parliament, chairperson of the parliamentary committee on the health of the nation, medical care and health insurance Mykhailo Radutskyi (Servant of the People faction) states that this week the Ministry of Health intends to make a decision to reduce the validity of the COVID certificate of vaccination with two doses from 1 year to 9 months.

He wrote about this in a Telegram channel, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"This week, the Ministry of Health intends to make a decision to reduce the validity of the COVID certificate of vaccination with two doses: from 1 year to 9 months. This decision has already been made at the level of the European Commission and will begin to operate in the EU from February 1. Most European countries have reduced the validity period of the certificate after two doses to 7 months. In Lithuania, such a requirement for the certificate was introduced from December 28, 2021, in France - from January 15, in Greece - from February 1," he wrote.

Radutskyi recalled that in Ukraine vaccination against COVID-19 began in late February 2021.

"By April 10, 377,000 people were vaccinated. They need now to register for vaccination with the third dose so that the term of their COVID certificate can be extended. For almost a week in Ukraine, vaccination with the third dose has been allowed for citizens over 18 years who were vaccinated with two doses from 6 to 9 months ago. Currently, there are practically no people willing to get the third vaccination in the vaccination centers," he said.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in January, Ukraine introduced a booster dose against COVID-19 for people over 18 years, with preference given to Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, regardless of which vaccine the person was previously vaccinated.

Earlier, the Senior Medical Officer Ihor Kuzin said that an additional dose of the coronavirus vaccine does not extend the validity of the COVID certificate, and the booster dose increases it by 270 days.

On January 10, the number of newly-registered Covid-19 cases in Ukraine rose by 5,429 over January 9 to 3,709,871, and the number of deaths increased by 219 over January 9 to 97,544; at the same time, the number of new cases rose 2.8 times, and the number of new deaths rose 2.5 times.

According to the report, as of the morning of January 11, a total of 3,709,871 laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases were registered in Ukraine; the number included 97,544 deaths; 3,522,547 had recovered.

On January 10, a total of 5,429 new disease cases were recorded, 219 people died, and 7,761 people recovered.

Therefore, as of January 10, the number of newly infected people was higher than that of those who recovered (5,429 vs 7,761).

At the same time, on January 10, a total of 915 coronavirus-infected people were hospitalized, up 14% over January 9.