In his Tuesday’s press briefing, Maksym Stepanov said that the aggressive ‘Indian strain’ is ‘edging closer to the borders’ of Ukraine.

“We got past the recent wave of coronavirus, but there is no time to chill. We predict that we can have the forth wave of coronavirus[..]  the world faces a looming threat of a new coronavirus strain that proved devastating for India and is now edging closer to the border of our country,” stressed the minister.

Maksym Stepanov said that ‘this virus has been reported by Poland, Romania, other countries of Europe’ and was coming as a ‘serious challenge’ for Ukraine.

He struck a warning note, adding that  the ‘Indian’ strain is deadlier and more aggressive that the ‘African’ or ‘British’ strains.

‘It has a severe clinical course affecting respiratory tract, gastrointestinal tract, kidneys. Patients are reported to have serious [Covid] intoxication. According to Indian media reports, there were cases of blindness and mucormycosis,’ warned Stepanov.

The 3rd Covid wave proved grueling for Ukraine but today the country has no regions in the ‘red’ zone, said the Health Minister.

According to the latest epidemiology counts, Covid-19 infection rates are down –last week saw about 20,000 fewer reported cases than 2 weeks ago (36,398 and 55,605 respectively).

The hospitalization rates are ticking down – last week recorded 14,480 in hospitals compared to 19,237 cases of 2 weeks before.

The health ministry count reports 29,000 active cases. The 3rd Covid-19 wave saw this number peaking at 49,000 cases.