Ukraine preparing to reintroduce national quarantine/lockdown

The Ukrainian government is preparing to reintroduce a severe quarantine/lockdown on a national scale in what the President’s Office has characterized in recent days as a second wave of the COVID-19/coronavirus pandemic. The current infection rate, as of July 1, is 58 cases per 100,000 people. In a BBC interview published on June 30, PM Denys Shmyhal said the quarantine/lockdown will be reimposed nationally should the rate reach 60 cases per 100,000. About 484 fines were issued against establishments for violating the quarantine on June 30 alone, the office said. “We have quite decent care for the sick. After all, the level of use of artificial respirators and the casualty rate are rather low. We also began to better protect medical workers. If they accounted for a fifth of infections in mid-April, then that’s currently at 9.5%,” the president said at his daily coronavirus meeting with top officials.

The cabinet agreed at its weekly meeting on July 1 to submit legislation to parliament to strengthen penalties for operators and clients of establishments and public transport for those not wearing masks. The fines against operators would be UAH 3,400-5,100, while fines on clients would be UAH 170-255, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov clarified at his daily press briefing on July 2.

The government has already spent UAH 19 bln of the total UAH 64.7 bln fund to combat the COVID-19 disease, PM Shmyhal said on his Facebook page, citing Finance Ministry statistics. Of the UAH 19 bln, UAH 9 bln was spent on unemployment coverage, UAH 3 bln on prevention measures, UAH 2.5 bln on social security, UAH 1.7 bln on pensions and other aid and UAH 2.7 bln on the military and police.

Cases of the COVID-19 disease swelled again on July 1, reaching 889, according to statistics of the National Security and Defense Council. An estimated 12 people died, while 505 recovered. The highest number of infections were in the Lviv region (152) and the city of Kyiv (104), which reimposed quarantine/lockdown restrictions. They included limiting the operation of cultural and entertainment establishments to no later than 10:00 p.m. and no greater than 50% capacity.

Zenon Zawada: There are enough positive statistics in recent days for us to believe it’s more likely the government will refrain from reimposing a severe quarantine/lockdown nationwide, rather than doing it. The costs of reintroducing it are too risky, both politically and economically.