Latest daily COVID-19 records set in Ukraine

The results of the severe weekend lockdowns in
Ukraine, which were launched on Nov. 14, have been “so so,” Health Minister
Maksym Stepanov told a Nov. 21 press briefing. The National Police had to shut
down numerous businesses flouting the first weekend of lockdowns, he said.
Meanwhile, the mass media were reporting frequent instances of lockdown
violators this weekend. “Many ‘experts’ have began to emerge and began to say,
‘We already conducted the first weekend quarantine and having seen a decline.’
There are laws of epidemiology. This is the axiom that it’s impossible on the
next day after quarantine restrictions to see a decline in illnesses. We expect
a result at minimum two weeks after a truly conducted weekend quarantine.”

New infections of the COVID-19 disease caused by the
coronavirus reached 10,945 cases on Nov. 22, Stepanov reported this morning.
That’s compared to 12,079 on Nov. 21 and 14,580 on Nov. 20, which was a daily
record. An estimated 124 people died from COVID-19 on Nov. 22, compared to 138
on Nov. 21 and 215 on Nov. 20. Of the 215 deaths, 40 occurred in the
Dnipropetrovsk region. The same day, the city of Kyiv reported the highest
daily number of infections among its medical workers, or 66 cases.

Zenon Zawada: This weekend’s numbers are a source of optimism after the record
number of infections set on Nov. 20. Both MP Denys Shmyhal and Stepanov began
discussing their Plan B options in recent days should the weekend quarantine
not succeed in reducing COVID-19 infections. That’s standard procedure,
especially given that the mass media is interested in this prospect. But the
authorities are taking the right approach in not drawing any conclusions so
soon.