No more than 20% of the population has immunity to coronavirus (COVID-19) disease; it is far from the formation of herd immunity, experts from Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) said.

"No more than 20% of Ukrainians have immunity, 40% of intensive care beds are filled. The KSE simulation refutes the widespread misconception that Ukraine will soon receive natural herd immunity to SARS-CoV-2. For this, at least 70% of the population must be ill. Ukraine should urgently strengthen the detection system [testing and contact tracing] in order to respond in time to a possible new outbreak, the threat of which is amplified by new types of the virus and the consistently high workload of resuscitation of COVID-19 patients," Head of the Health Economics Center at Kyiv School of Economics Pavlo Kovtoniuk said.

According to the KSE, currently in Ukraine, approximately 13-20% of population has been infected with COVID-19, among medical workers this figure is 13.4%.

The KSE noted that the most critical situation with the spread of COVID-19 in Ukraine is in Zakarpattia region. Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi regions are in the risk zone.

The experts also said that in Ukraine, as before, there is a high rate of positive cases among all tested - 18%.

The KSE believes that Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi regions can become the epicenters of a new outbreak of COVID-19, in these regions new hospitalizations for a long time exceed the discharge of patients by 20-70%, while last week nationwide in Ukraine approximately the same number of patients with COVID-19 was hospitalized and discharged from hospitals.

As reported with reference to the data of the Synevo medical laboratory, on the basis of the conducted tests, indicating immunity to coronavirus disease, 52% of Ukrainians have IgG antibodies to COVID-19. The Dila medical laboratory estimates that immunoglobulin G is already detected in about 50% of the COVID-19 tests that the laboratory conducts.