The Ministry of Health is predicting that the number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases in Ukraine will surge in late January and peak in February.
Deputy Minister of Health/Chief State Sanitary Doctor Ihor Kuzin announced this in an interview with BBC News Ukraine, the Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"We are not yet seeing a deterioration of the epidemiological situation. It will most likely be triggered in the post-holiday period, until when people have postponed visits to the doctor. According to our forecasts, the next surge will be from the end of January. There will be more Omicron at that time. It will peak in February and gradually reduce until April," he said.
According to him, the scope and duration of the new wave will depend on the effectiveness of anti-epidemic measures and the number of people who will undergo the full course of vaccination or take a booster dose.
He also said that there would be no problem providing oxygen to hospitals during the next wave of COVID-19.
Besides, according to Kuzin, the Ministry of Health expects 300,000-400,000 people to take booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccines before the start of the new wave.
"There will be enough vaccines. We can say this clearly. Ukraine has contracts for the supply of 25 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine during 2022 and 6.5 million doses of the CoronaVac vaccine. About 10 million more doses are expected to be received as assistance under the Covax mechanism," he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency reported earlier, Ukraine is introducing a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines for people over the age of 18 on January 6, with preference given to Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, regardless of the type of vaccine that was originally administered to a person.
According to Kuzin, the introduction of an additional dose of a coronavirus vaccine does not extend the validity of a COVID certificate but a booster dose will increase it by 270 days.
Ukraine introduced booster doses of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for people over the age of 60 in January, six months after the second dose.
Ukraine introduced booster doses of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines for doctors and employees of boarding houses in late December.
The National Security and Defense Council is predicting a wave of the Omicron coronavirus strain in Ukraine in February.
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