The Council of Churches and the Ministry of Health will cooperate in preventing a new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations considered this issue at a meeting on July 14, 2021, which was held in Kyiv under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Sviatoslav, head of the UGCC, IRS reports.

During the meeting, Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Iryna Mikichak appealed to the heads of faiths to spread information through religious communities, especially among the rural population, about the possibility and importance of vaccination as an effective means of countering the spread of COVID-19 infection and saving the lives of our fellow citizens.

She also suggested organizing vaccination centers at church communities, for which the Ministry of Health will provide its staff and necessary medical preparations for vaccinations.
For their part, religious figures voiced a number of proposals to make the Ministry of Health's activities in this area more effective.

The AUCCRO also agreed to develop cooperation with the Center for public health of the Ministry of Health, which, within the framework of cooperation with the US government, is implementing an international technical assistance project for better monitoring, epidemiological surveillance, response to outbreaks of the disease and their prevention. The first event in this context will be a two-day seminar, which will be held in mid-August in Kyiv.

In addition, the heads and representatives of churches and religious organizations analyzed legislative initiatives and the results of consideration by parliamentarians and officials of the appeals by the AUCCRO.

The participants also summed up the results of the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the AUCCRO and planned events for the next two months. In particular, it is planned to organize an annual solemn event "blessing of Ukraine" in the Church of St. Sophia of Kyiv with the participation of the state leadership, which will begin festive events dedicated to the Independence Day of Ukraine on August 24.

The participants of the meeting received copies of the collection of documents of the AUCCRO for the period 1996-2021, which was recently published and is planned to be published in electronic format.

Members of the AUCCRO also decided to extend the powers of the current chairman of the AUCCRO, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, until October 2021.