Ukraine registered a record 9,850 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, Reuters quoted the health minister as saying on Thursday, up from a high of 9,524 reported a day earlier.

Total infections so far stood at 430,467 with 7,924 deaths by Thursday, Maksym Stepanov said.

The daily tally of coronavirus infections spiked in late September and remained consistently high throughout October, prompting the government to extend lockdown measures until the end of this year.

Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said later on Thursday the number of new cases could jump to 15,000 a day by the end on November and to 20,000 daily by the end of the year.

Stepanov this week said that the coronavirus situation in Ukraine was close to catastrophic and that the nation must prepare for the worst.