Ukraine to raise epidemic status from September 23

The Ukrainian government decided on Sept. 21 to raise
the COVID epidemic level to Yellow across the country. The change will take
effect on Sept. 23, the Cabinet of Ministers announced on its website. As of
Sept. 22, only two oblasts are registering COVID cases below this level, and
6754 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Restrictions will be in place for those who have not
been vaccinated. However, this situation is complicated by fraud. In
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a doctor and her accomplice were arrested for providing
fake vaccination certificates. They also offered inputting the buyers’ names
into the Ministry of Health vaccination database for a total price of UAH
6,000, pravda.com.ua reports.

James Hydzik: The problem of fake certificates can be found the world over, but
registration into the vaccination database is at a different level. This points
not to fear of vaccination on the part of the doctor, but opportunism and a
disregard for losing her position brought on by low pay first and foremost. The
problem is an old one, but the political will to restructure the pay of highly
educated workers in state-run institutions is low.