Ukraine's record COVID-19 case counts and a Pfizer deal
A look back at the early April 2021 days when daily infections peaked and Kyiv agreed to buy 10 million vaccine doses.
How did Ukraine's pandemic picture look on 8 April 2021? It was shaped by the days just before it: rising infections on one side and a vaccine purchase on the other.
On 2 April 2021, Ukraine reported 19,893 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 433 deaths within a day. Those figures took the nationwide total of confirmed cases to 1.71 million and the death toll to 33,679. It was a daily high.
The next day, 3 April 2021, the number rose again. Ukraine reported 20,341 new confirmed cases over 24 hours, another daily high, and the nationwide total reached 1.73 million.
Three days later, on 6 April 2021, Ukraine signed a deal with Pfizer for the supply of 10 million doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccine.
Seen from 8 April 2021, the country was therefore dealing with two developments at once: infection numbers that had set successive highs in a single week, and a signed agreement to obtain vaccine doses from a major international manufacturer.
