Covid today Ukraine, 25 thousand infections a day: risk of recovery

Yesterday it was the World Health Organization (WHO), both through the words of the director general and through a note from the Regional Office for Europe, to express “concern for the health of the Ukrainian people in the escalation of the crisis” and of the attack by Russia. “The health system must continue to function to provide essential care for all health problems, from Covid-19 to cancer.” Because the virus has obviously not gone away. According to reports from the ‘Our World in Data’ platform, over 27,000 Covid cases were recorded yesterday in Ukraine. Further data on the progress of the pandemic in the country is reported by the WHO Europe counter, which photographs the situation in the region: Ukraine in the last 7 days has counted just under 150 thousand infections. The average incidence per 100 thousand inhabitants was down by 29% in the last week (and equal to almost 341 cases / 100 thousand); 1,558 deaths recorded in the last 7 days. The fear is that, in addition to the siege of the tanks, that of an epidemic that raises its head could be added, if the response to the virus is interrupted. The fighting taking place in the eastern part of Ukraine is resulting in a mass migration to the west. Many people are on the move, crowding the nerve centers of transport, trains, roads. The ‘New York Times’ reports the thought of an expert at the Center for Health Security at Bloomberg School of Public Health – Johns Hopkins University, Eric S. Toner, that the crowding of people in buses, trains and cars, or perhaps in the hotels and refugee camps, risks “causing a reversal of progress”. Also according to reports from the US newspaper, officials of the Biden administration speculate that between 1 and 5 million people could seek safety in other areas of the country or in neighboring ones. And for Toner it is possible that even in neighboring countries there may be an increase in infections. But the problems will be worse within the country where the health system will have to take care of Covid patients and victims of the war. “It will be a disaster.” According to data also available on Our World in Data, about one third of Ukraine’s 44 million inhabitants are fully vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, or 15.22 million people as of February 23 . While according to various media reports, vaccination coverage in the country’s army has reached 99.3%. Ukraine does not recognize the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, while Russia does not recognize Western-made vaccines administered in Ukraine. Then there is also the risk that with the Russian invasion problems will also be created on the tracing capacity of the virus. “I suspect that we will stop receiving a lot of data from Ukraine”, Toner said, also because “local hospitals and health departments will not have this priority”.