Ukraine

Ukraine imposes travel restrictions to prevent spread of Covid-19 Omicron strain

1 min read
Ukraine imposes travel restrictions to prevent spread of Covid-19 Omicron strain
(Boryspil International Airport/Facebook)

The new variant has not been officially recorded in Ukraine as of Nov. 29, according to Health Minister Viktor Lyashko.

The World Health Organization warned that Omicron has many mutations that may make it more virulent than the previous strains and get around immunity. First reported in South Africa on Nov. 24, Omicron has been detected in a number of African countries, as well as Europe, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong.

To prevent the new strain from spreading in Ukraine, the health ministry introduced new entrance rules for Ukrainians who have been in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini or Mozambique for more than seven days in the last two weeks. These travelers will have to go through 14 days of self-isolation upon returning to Ukraine.

Travel restrictions have been put into effect on Nov. 29. The number of countries on the list may be expanded. The health ministry also urged citizens to refrain from traveling to countries where the new strain has been detected.

Health expert Pavlo Kovtonyuk told the Kyiv Independent that “the Delta strain now dominates in Ukraine” and, in his opinion, “it will dominate for a long time, even if the Omicron strain comes to Ukraine, it will take time to displace all other strains.”

Avatar
Victoria Petryk

News reporter

Victoria Petryk is a staff writer at the Kyiv Independent. She studied philology at Kyiv National Linguistic University. She worked at the Embassy of Israel in Kyiv as an information officer before joining the Kyiv Post as a staff writer in October 2021.

Read more
News Feed

U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks come after the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing undisclosed sources, that he asked President Volodymyr Zelensky whether Kyiv could strike Moscow or St Petersburg if provided with long-range U.S. weapons.

"The stolen data includes confidential questionnaires of the company's employees, and most importantly, full technical documentation on the production of drones, which was handed over to the relevant specialists of the Ukrainian Defense Forces," a source in Ukraine's military intelligence told the Kyiv Independent.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called upon the EU to take action against Ukraine's conscription practices in an interview with Origo published on July 15, amid an ongoing dispute with Kyiv over the death of a Ukrainian conscript of Hungarian ethnicity.

Show More