29 March 2021, Monday, 19:05 235

Ukraine To Introduce Vaccination Passports - Presidential Office

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

Ukraine intends to introduce vaccination passports.

Ukrainian News Agency learned this from a statement on the President's website.

"At a conference call on preventing the spread of coronavirus disease, chaired by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy ... the issue of introducing vaccination passports, which is now being considered in many countries of Europe and the world, was raised," the statement reads.

Such passports are already being developed by the countries of the European Union, the USA, Switzerland, Israel.

"We also need to develop our own system of appropriate certification, as well as to curb the spread of coronavirus disease, it is necessary to cover 70% of the adult population with vaccines against COVID-19," Zelenskyy said.

The Ministry of Health announced that in the near future Ukraine is expected to receive 300,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 117,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine under the COVAX program.

Besides, negotiations on direct contracts for the purchase of vaccines are underway.

The second dose will start at the end of May, that is, 12 weeks after the first dose.

Minister of Social Policy Maryna Lazebna announced the allocation of UAH 400 million for partial payment of sick leave arrears.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that now in Ukraine there are almost 317,000 active patients with COVID-19.

"In the first place according to this indicator is the city of Kyiv, the second is Odesa region, the third is Lviv region. Today 10 regions and the city of Kyiv are in the "red" zone. Kherson region is the only one in the "yellow" zone. The rest of the regions are in the "orange," he said.

According to him, the increase in the number of hospitalizations is recorded for the fifth week in a row.

Now 44,400 beds are loaded out of 75,200.

At the same time, the Prime Minister said that the number of tests is also growing: from 303,000 to 326,000 PCR tests per week, from 226,000 to 251,000 express tests and from 117,000 to 125,000 ELISA tests.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs informed that the National Police checked 71,000 business entities for compliance with the quarantine rules in 11 regions classified in the "red" zone.

The work of 90 establishments was stopped.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine and Israel are interested in mutual recognition of vaccination passports to restore air traffic and tourism.