Ukraine has registered another daily record for new coronavirus infections as a wave of cases and deaths continues to sweep across Eastern Europe.
The Health Ministry said on October 29 that the Eastern European country had 26,870 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours, exceeding the previous high of 26,071 seen a day earlier.
The number of fatalities over the previous 24 hours was 648, the ministry added.
The total number of infections since the start of the pandemic stands at 2.88 million, with more than 67,000 deaths, official figures show.
Authorities across the region have blamed the worsening situation in large part on slow vaccination rates.
Kyiv is imposing new lockdown measures as of November 1 to combat the spread of the deadly virus.
Ukraine, a nation of 42 million, has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Europe, making the country vulnerable to an uptick in cases, medical experts say.
About 9.5 million Ukrainians -- or slightly more than one-fifth of the population -- have received the first of two doses of a vaccine with just 7.2 million Ukrainians fully vaccinated.
On October 28, EU member Bulgaria announced it was temporarily closing its border to most Ukrainian visitors. The travel restrictions are set to take force on October 30, the Ukrainian Embassy in Sofia announced.
Only Ukrainians with Bulgarian residency, as well as their family members, will be allowed to enter the country under the temporary restrictions if they have a negative COVID test, proof of vaccination, or documents showing they have recovered from the virus within the previous 180 days.
