KYIV (Reuters) – The number of COVID-19 cases in Ukraine has exceeded 1.5 million with 29,253 deaths, Ukrainian Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on Thursday.
Ukraine has faced a sharp jump in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, which Prime Minister Denys Shmygal called a “third wave” of the pandemic.
On Wednesday, Ukraine registered a record daily high of 289 coronavirus-related deaths and the death toll remained at a high level of 267 on Thursday, Stepanov said on Facebook.
He said the number of hospitalised Ukrainians remained at a high level – 4,376 were admitted to hospitals in the past 24 hours, down from a record 4,887 the day before.
The surge in new infections and deaths has forced the prime minister to urge regional authorities to impose stronger restrictions to contain the disease.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
