Kyiv clinic being investigated for concealing positive coronavirus result

Police are inquiring about a private medical clinic in
Kyiv that may have concealed information from authorities about a client with
positive test results for the coronavirus, the pravda.com.ua news site reported
on Mar. 24. The police submitted information requests to various state bodies,
including the clinic itself, and has called the medical network’s head for
questioning. The possible criminal offense is violating sanitary rules and
norms for the prevention of infectious diseases and mass poisoning. “The police
saw a publication on the Internet that indicates a private clinic performed a
coronavirus test for a Kyiv resident. Yet the clinic’s workers did not inform
the Health Ministry and Central for Public Health about its conducting the test
and its positive result,” said a National Police press release published on
Mar. 24.

As of noon, Mar. 25, four people have died in Ukraine
from the COVID-19 disease, the Center for Public Health of the Health Ministry
reported. A 68-year-old pensioner has died in the Ternopil region, the center
said this morning. A total of 113 people have been infected in Ukraine, an
increase of 35%, or 29 cases, from the prior day. Of that amount, 108 cases are
active and one patient has recovered, the center said.

Zenon Zawada: It’s positive to see law enforcement authorities take reports of
concealing infections seriously. Refusal to report is likely among the factors
in the problems with data collection, with another being ongoing reports of
deaths of those merely suspected of having been contaminated, not confirmed.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has complained about his data on Kyiv coronavirus
patients not conforming to the Health Ministry’s figures, which offers more
evidence to the claims that the official data doesn’t reflect the reality on
the ground. We believe the weak data are the result of substandard organization
in collecting information, rather than any concerted effort to suppress it.