• To the question"Are you in person ready to get vaccinated in the next few months?", 43% answered that they are ready, 53% - that they are not ready. Compared to March, the attitude to vaccination improved: the number of people ready to be vaccinated increased by 10 percentage points (from 33% to 43%), and the number of those not ready - decreased by 9 percentage points (from 62% to 52%).

  Graph 2. Are you in person ready to get vaccinated in the next few months?

• To the question"Why aren't you ready to get vaccinated?" most answered that vaccines have not yet been sufficiently tested (40%); the second most popular answer is distrust of vaccines that currently exist in Ukraine (33%). "The effects of the vaccine may be worse than those of Covid" - 20% of respondents believe; 17% do not trust any vaccination. See graph3

  Graph 3. Why aren't you ready to get vaccinated? (among those who are not ready to do)

Comment by KIIS Director General Volodymyr Paniotto

We finished the survey on April 15. On April 16, according to official statistics (I took the data from Johns Hopkins University) became sick with Covid 1974056, i.e. about 2 million people. According to the survey, 29.1% became sick, of which 16.9% determined it by tests, and 12% only by symptoms. If we take into account only those who did the tests, take into account the error and take the lower border (see table below), then among the adult population (18 years and older) became sick 4.4 million people. This means that in Ukraine, patients are at least twice as many as according to official statistics. If to take into account that 2 million of official statistics include people under the age of 18, and that some of those who believe that they had Covid, but did not do the tests, could also be right, then patients we may havethree times more of us than according to official statistics.

What could this be related to? In my opinion, this cannot be due to the insincerity of the respondents, they are not motivated to say that the tests confirmed that they were ill, if it was not so. I do not know the protocols for collecting information about Covid's cases, but perhaps private clinics and commercial testing centers do not always report Covid's cases and this data does not get into the centralized system? Another, perhaps more substantiated hypothesis, expressed by the expert, looking at these data - the Ministry of Health considers the correct diagnosis only by PCR tests, and our respondents understand the tests as any tests (e.g., antibodies and antigen).

Table.  Calculation of the possible number of patients with Covid among the population aged 18+.

ANNEX.    Distribution of answers by regions and age. Other questions

The incidence rate of COVID 19, by regions[1]:

• The largest number of those who have been or are currently suffering from COVID 19 is observed in the Western region (34%), slightly less in the Center (30%). In the East, 27% of respondents said so. The lowest number of those who have been or are currently suffering from COVID 19 is in the Southern region (24%)
• The largest number of those who were sick was found by the test - in the Western region (20%), the smallest - in the South (12%). At the Center, the disease was diagnosed using the test by 18% of respondents in the East – 15%.
• Experienced symptoms of coronavirus, but did NOT take the test: 13% of residents of the Western region, 12% - Central; in the East and South - equally, 11%.
• The number of those who did not suffer from COVID 19 is the highest in the Southern region (70%) and the lowest in the West (61%). 65% did not get sick in the Center, in the East – 67%.

The incidence rate of COVID 19, by age:

• The largest number of those who have been or are currently suffering from COVID 19isamong youth, the smallest – among elderly: 18-29 years– 36%, 30-39 years – 32%, 40-49 years – 27%, 50-59 years – 34%,  60+ years – 21%.
• Among them, the largest number of those who diagnosed the disease with help of test – among people, aged 50-59 years (22%), the smallest – among elderly, 60+ years(11%).
• The largest number of those who identified the disease by symptoms - among youth of 18-29 years (16%), the smallest – among elderly, 60+ years(10%).
• The largest number of those who did not get sick – among elderly, 60+ years(73%), the smallest –  among people aged18-29 yearsand 50-59 years(equally, 61%)

Table 1.Have you already been sick or are you currently suffering from COVID 19? / Why do you think this is COVID 19 - did the tests or only by symptoms? 

Level of readiness for vaccination, by regions:

• More than half of the population in all regions of Ukraine are not ready to be vaccinated: most of them in the Southern and Eastern regions (54% and 55%, the difference is not significant), slightly less - in the Center and West (51% and 50%, the difference is not significant)
• In all regions of Ukraine, a quarter or more of the population is ready for vaccination, most of them in the Western region (47%), slightly less in the Center (44%). Among the residents of Southern and Eastern Ukraine are ready to get vaccinated 39%.

Graph 4. Are you ready to get vaccinated in the next few months? Distribution by regions of Ukraine, %  

 

---

[1] West - Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi and Chernivtsi regions,

  Center - Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv regions and Kyiv city,

  South - Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kherson regions,

  East - Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions.

 

Graph 6. According to your estimates,how the incidence of coronavirus in Ukraine has been changing recently?

To the question "How do you assess the risk of COVID 19 infection in your family over the next 6 months?", 37% answered that the risk is low (31% thought so in March), 35% - medium (39% in March), 15% - that the risk is high (it was 16%, the difference is not significant).

Graph 7.  How do you assess the risk of COVID 19 infection in your family over the next 6 months?