Cabinet extends quarantine till May 22, launches first relaxation phase on May 11

Ukraine’s cabinet adopted a resolution at its special
session on May 4 to implement the first phase of the nation’s emergence from
the severe quarantine. As of May 11, business allowed to reopen include
restaurants and cafes for delivery, takeout and outdoor seating; wholesalers
and retailers of non-food goods (excluding food courts and playgrounds in
shopping malls); and services of household electronics repair, vehicle wash and
repair, bicycle sale and repair, dental care, hair and beauty salons, auditors,
law offices and notaries. Training camps for professional team sports will also
be allowed to open, as well as public parks, squares and recreation zones.

With the same resolution, the cabinet also extended
the remaining restrictions of the quarantine until May 22. They include
prohibitions on any gatherings of youth (particularly at educational
institutions), public mass transit, and businesses deemed non-essential,
including indoor restaurants and cafes, movie theatres, hotels and hostels,
fitness clubs, and mass sporting and entertainment events. The cabinet has yet
to indicate when religious services will be allowed to reopen.

Ukraine’s regions with the highest rates of coronavirus
infection will undergo an adaptive quarantine that differs from the national
plan, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said at the May 4 cabinet meeting. These
regions include Chernivtsi (on the Romania border), Ternopil and
Ivano-Frankivsk regions, many of whose residents work in Europe. Local
governments will be responsible for approving adaptive quarantines, he said.

Coronavirus infections rose by 366 cases, or 3.0%,
from the prior day to a total of 12,697 as of noon, May 5, according to the
Center for Public Health of the Health Ministry of Ukraine. An estimated 316
people have died from the COVID-19 disease caused by the coronavirus, an
increase of 13 cases from the prior day. Recovered patients rose 256 to a total
of 1,875 cases.

Zenon Zawada: With every day, the government’s five-phase plan for emerging from the
quarantine is losing relevance for entrepreneurs, taking matters into their own
hands and gradually reopening, increasingly with the support of local
governments. That’s especially when the statistics indicate the peak of
infection has passed and is declining, with the exception of recent outbreaks
in the more densely populated regions of Odesa, Dnipro and Kharkiv, as reported
by Health Minister Stepanov yesterday.