A view of Kiev, Ukraine Photo: Unsplash

Ukrainians were rushing to get vaccinated against the coronavirus Wednesday after its capital Kiev rolled out new anti-COVID-19 measures to counter a surge in infections.

The country reported a record number of inoculations since it began offering jabs in February with more than 291,000 people fully vaccinated over the past 24 hours.

Authorities in the country of around 41 million people struggled to source vaccine doses and have since fought to convince vaccine-sceptic Ukrainians to get inoculated.

But new restrictions requiring vaccinations have recently seen people flock to vaccine centers with more than 1.6 million jabs administered this week compared to 906,000 in the previous seven days.

"I'd like us to finally overcome this coronavirus threat," Yana Tatarchuk, 35, told AFP as she waited in line with dozens of people at a vaccination center in the capital Kiev.

Kiev mayor and former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko urged residents to "Get vaccinated!" "This is the only way to prevent a rapid spread of the virus... and to save people's lives," he wrote on social media.

People at public venues are required to be vaccinated in several badly-hit regions with the measures expanding to seven more regions on Saturday.

AFP