Ukraine extends adaptive quarantine until Aug. 31

Ukraine’s cabinet decided at its weekly meeting on
July 22 to extend the government’s adaptive quarantine policy to cope with the
coronavirus until Aug. 31. The adaptive approach has demonstrated its
effectiveness at the regional level and enables controlling the infection rate nationwide,
said PM Denys Shmyhal, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site. The same
morning, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov told the president’s daily meeting on
the virus that new norms of quarantine are being introduced, as well as
harmonized with those of the E.U.

In particular, the epidemiological situation in each
region will be assigned a green, yellow, orange or red level, based on data and
algorithms. The main indicators will remain hospital bed occupancy (no more
than 50%), the average level of testing (not less than 24 tests per 100,000
people), the rate of infections (not more than 11%), and the dynamics of growth
of infections (no more than 10%). Regions that don’t exceed the norms for
indicators are designated as a green zone, requiring the basic quarantine
measures: wearing masks, public events with no more than one person per 5 sq.
m., indoor events with capacity at no more than 50% and public transit using
only seating (no standing). Those regions exceeding the norms for five straight
days are subject to stricter measures, with red zones subject to total
lockdown.

Cases of the COVID-19 disease caused by the
coronavirus swelled to 972 on July 23, as reported by the National Security and
Defense Council. That’s compared to 856 on July 22 and 829 on July 21. An
estimated 20 people died, while 886 recovered on July 23.

Zenon Zawada: The overall
coronavirus situation in Ukraine is stable, though infection cases have swelled
again. Meanwhile, fatalities are strikingly low. We can’t help but suspect a
certain inflation of reported infections, especially with government officials
not raising any concern about this latest spike.

President Zelensky vowed that the quarantine will
be lifted after Aug. 31, but we believe that’s wishful thinking and it will be
extended. Nonetheless, daily life has returned to some basic normalcy, though
it’s a new normalcy than before the pandemic.