Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update -April 21, 2021
21.04.2021
The mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko held a briefing providing an update on the coronavirus situation in Ukraine’s capital and the measures the city is taking to respond.
Klitschko: New coronavirus cases in Kyiv are going down in Kyiv, but the mortality rate remains high. There are 965 new COVID-19 cases overnight. With this, the total number of infections in Kyiv has reached 187,196. The latest cases are 574 women (18 – 99 years old), 361 men (18-86 years old) and 30 children. Also, 33 more medical workers were tested positive in the past 24 hours.
There are also 641 new recoveries in Kyiv, reaching 116,498 so far. 40 more fatalities raised the death toll to 4,297.
461 patients were admitted to the city’s hospitals, including 330 with suspected diagnosis.
Darnytsky district is the most affected among all Kyiv’s neighbourhoods, with 287 transmissions overnight.
Experts say, severe restrictions imposed in Ukraine’s capital city have proved effective, resulting in fewer new cases and hospital admissions. But serious hospital cases are not trending downward.
Currently, 3,663 patients are being treated in hospitals in Kyiv, including 20 children. 2,672 in-patients are very ill, in serious medical condition, 62 of them are on a ventilator and 3,250 more under oxygen therapy. The bed occupancy rate stands at almost 62 per cent. Also, almost 73 per cent of oxygen beds are occupied.
It is no time to relax the lockdown rules and I am never getting tired of calling people to continue to comply with the regulations and follow the public health guidance.
Along with the rest of the regions, Kyiv is running its Covid-19 inoculation programme with the Covishield, CoronaVac та Pfizer vaccines provided by the Health Ministry. We have received 42,600 doses of Covishield vaccine, 17,200 of CoronaVac vaccine and the first batch of 1,170 vials of Pfizer vaccine out of the expected 4,700.
Over 45,000 people in Kyiv have already received their first shot. They are mainly medical professionals, municipal social service workers and the elderly. In particular, we have already begun the vaccination rollout of the Pfizer vaccine in the Kyiv nursing home. CoronaVac shots are available for athletes taking part in the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year and education workers who are involved in the national high school graduation test campaign. This week 1,100 school employees have been inoculated to make the independent testing safe for all participants.
The testing capacity in Kyiv is still the highest in Ukraine and stands at 358 tests per 100,000 population. We have simplified the testing procedure. Tests are now available at 71 municipal-run testing collection centres in municipal-run health facilities. Their full list is available on the site of the Kyiv city administration. Tests are dоnе аt nо оut-of-росkеt соst to Kyivans but require a doctor’s referral.
The mobile response brigades continue to collect samples of the disabled people and the elderly population at home. Over 1,500 Kyivans tested for the infection at home last week.
Let me also remind you that the responsibility to administer the compliance with the coronavirus restrictions rests with the law enforcement agencies. But the municipality does everything it can to help them. For over a year now the mobile compliance groups which consist of the city districts officials, the National Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection, the police and municipal guards have been checking whether the reopening requirements are being followed by stores, restaurants and other businesses. Only last week they inspected about 6,000 restaurants, cafes, shops and night clubs and issued 286 penalty notices and fines up to a ₴170,000 fine for rules violation. Seven facilities were closed.
I am calling on businesses not to ignore the restriction rules. And I am asking Kyivans to obey the public health recommendations and report their violations.