With quarantine restrictions in sight, Ukraine is trying to get more people vaccinated with the carrot approach.
New quarantine measures are in all likelihood coming to Ukraine. With that in mind, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has tried giving special treatment in the all too well-known world of restrictions. In yellow zones, people who have received the first jab will be exempt from restrictions, while people with both doses will be exempt from restrictions in the red zones, Kyiv Post reports.
People will be able to prove their vaccination status through the new digital vaccination documentation in the Diia mobile app. Also, testing negative in the last 72 hours or having recovered from the disease will grant you free passage. There is one problem with this differentiated treatment of people though: People still don’t want the vaccine.
More than 56 percent of all Ukrainians are still not willing to let themselves vaccinate, according to a recent poll from the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Kyiv Post reported. Most Ukrainians are against vaccination because “vaccines are not sufficiently tested.”
The state of the virus
According to the government of Ukraine, there was 97,884 active cases of coronavirus in the country as of yesterday, September 14. But this number is growing everyday, as the of new registered cases surpass the number of recoveries. Yesterday, 3332 new cases were registered with only 1404 recoveries. Today Ukraine has registered 4,640 new cases.
Meanwhile, it is uncertain how big a share of the actual cases are picked up by the Ukrainian testing system. More than 10 percent of the tests yesterday, for example, was positive. Only 29,281 tests were conducted. Today 33,878 tests were recorded.
At the same time, the amount of Ukrainians being vaccinated is growing albeit at a slower rate than wanted. Also importantly, the people who are now getting vaccinated wants to get the vaccine. The 56 percent of people in Ukraine previously mentioned are not likely to get the vaccine anytime soon. 4.9 million Ukrainians have been vaccinated accounting for around 1 out of 8 Ukrainians.
The target percentage of a population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity is roughly 70 percent. There is still a long way to go for Ukraine before that goal is reached.
