Zelensky threatens to fire regional heads for not paying medics issued bonuses

Ukrainian President Zelensky called upon his regional
administration heads to pay medical workers their due bonuses issued by the
central government during the coronavirus pandemic in a May 6 video
announcement. He warned these heads will lose their salary, and possibly their
jobs, if medical workers don’t receive their bonuses by next week “Already in
the middle of April, the government transferred costs to pay premiums to medics
who are combatting COVID-19. Yet there are incidents in certain regions in
which these costs have not arrived. I understand that this announcement could
be watched by children, and unfortunately, I can’t say those all the words that
these certain officials deserve. I order all regional administration heads to
pay fully debts to doctors in the nearest days,” he said.

In his turn, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told a
May 6 press briefing that he was shocked that bonuses of tripled monthly
salaries, which were supposed to be paid for March, have not been received by
scores of medical workers. When he consulted with local state officials, he
said they explained to him various methods for counting and distributing the
bonuses that fell short of tripling salaries. He said he has requested
accounting reports for each hospital and medical worker from local bureaucrats
by May 8. Four new bonus schemes have been established for medics for work
performed after Apr. 1 that clearly define the tripled bonuses, he said. They
involve direct payments to hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, payments for
emergency care provided, payments for ambulances performing PCR tests, and
payments to hospitals that began handling COVID-19 patients in mid-April. The
respective agreements will be signed this week and payments will be
transferred, he said.

A district hospital in the city of Kremenchuk in the
Poltava region was shut down on May 5, the city council website announced. Of
the 85 coronavirus infections registered in the city as of that day, 43 were
among medical workers of that particular hospital, with new infections being
reported daily among staff, the website said. The hospital will be cleansed
with disinfectant and sterilization agents during the closure, the website
said.

More than half of Ukraine’s 872 food markets have renewed
their activity after a cabinet resolution allowing their reopening as of May 1,
said on May 6 Ihor Petrashko, the minister of economic development. Meanwhile,
the State Employment Center has received 3,763 for applications for a program
granting funds to SMEs to pay for dismissed workers. The conditions of the
program are still being finalized, he said.

Coronavirus infections rose by 507 cases, or 3.8%,
from the prior day, to 13,691 total as of noon, May 7, according to the Center
for Public Health of the Health Ministry of Ukraine. An estimated 340 people
have died from the COVID-19 disease, an increase of 13 cases from the prior
day. Recovered patients rose 299 to a total of 2,396 cases.

Zenon Zawada: The
failures of Ukraine’s bureaucracy, especially the medical system, have been the
biggest problem for the country among the coronavirus pandemic, for better or
for worse. The biggest problem going forward will be finding a safe mechanism
for allowing people return to work, or finding funds to compensate their lack
of employment.