Ukraine's Health Ministry says a recent spike in the number of confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the country has nothing to do with an increase in the number of tests.
"A significant increase in the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 started in our country last week when we crossed the threshold and began to set anti-records – over 600 and 753 [daily] cases last week," Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said at a briefing on June 16, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
Read alsoNumber of confirmed coronavirus cases in Ukraine exceeds 32,400 on June 16
"We think this is because people took the easing of quarantine measures for the complete lifting of all restrictions that exist in the country, as they completely neglect the recommendations made by the Health Ministry."
Stepanov said that outbreaks had been recorded in some populated localities where mass events were recently held without abiding by the quarantine rules.
"To reduce the risk of infection and the number of cases, the Health Ministry's recommendations must be observed," the minister said.
According to Stepanov, in addition to the spike in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ukraine, there is also an increase in suspected cases when citizens with coronavirus symptoms turn to hospitals, and the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 is on the rise.
"As for toughening the quarantine measures: We now have the adaptive quarantine, which clearly stipulates the criteria to be used for stepping up the quarantine regime in a particular area," he said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, as of the morning of June 16, there were 32,476 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 666 confirmed in the past 24 hours. The death toll was 913 people and 14,528 patients have already recovered. The dynamics of confirmed COVID-19 cases per day from June 8 to June 14 are the following: 463 on June 8, 395 on June 9, 525 on June 10, 689 on June 11, 683 on June 12, the highest number, 753, on June 13, and 648 on June 14.
