Ukraine records 2,000+ new COVID-19 for the fifth straight day

New registrations of COVID-19 cases in Ukraine totaled
2,088 on Aug. 31, the Health Ministry reports. This marks the fifth day in a
row that more than 2,000 new COVID-19 cases were registered, and the eleventh
day in the last fourteen that more than 1,900 cases were registered. Among the
new cases is the mayor of the city of Ternopil.

James Hydzik: Given that Ukraine
marked 1,000 COVID-19 cases for the first time only on Aug. 12 and that outside
of the 21 districts that are already locked down, restrictions are rather
light, the number and rate of new infections can be expected to rise.

The case can be made that the harsher restrictions of
the Spring spared the country long enough to prepare for the inevitable, and
that the economic damage done was the price of avoiding a catastrophe that
could have had even greater economic as well as human safety effects.

While the infrastructure has been bolstered and
plans are in place, a question arises regarding implementation, and this is a
well-documented weak spot in Ukraine, as reformers and observers alike have
repeatedly pointed over the years to well-crafted laws and strategic documents
left underutilized due to a lack of will, among other reasons. It’s a difficult
calculus, weighing health, economic, political and for some, personal
interests, but the broader question at the moment is how individuals will take their
own measures to protect themselves and not rely on government, and even how
they will affect institutions. Parents are forcing some schools to divide
classrooms into in-school and remote groups by pointing to Health Ministry
guidelines to rebuff local education ministry calls to bring kids into schools.
In effect, can actions such as these be taken, at least in some quarters, as a
sign of the health of civil society in Ukraine?