Ukraine takes piecemeal measures as COVID cases rise

Ukraine’s Health Ministry announced on March 17 that
11,833 new cases of COVID had been registered over the past 24 hours. In a
Facebook post, the ministry noted that the City of Kyiv led the case uptake
with 1,121 new cases, up from 999 the day before.

Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko requested that the
Cabinet of Ministers increase the restrictions placed on areas designated in
the Ministry’s Orange zone, online media pravda.com.ua reported on March 16. He
also demanded that municipalities be returned the right to set their own new
restrictions. The mayor noted that the number of COVID-related hospitalizations
had doubled in the last ten days, and that at the current rate, Kyiv hospitals
will run out of places for the ill in a few days.

Klitschko’s demand comes after Health Minister Maxym
Stepanov urged localities to take matters into their own hands. He pointed to
his meeting with Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi last week, after which the mayor
headed the local decision to move 5-11 grade education online without waiting
for an order from Kyiv.

James Hydzik: Kyiv took a
different tack from Lviv, and started spring break two days early. With
increasing caseloads and hospitals rapidly becoming overstretched, the
possibility of spring break being extended or classes moved online is high.
Businesses are being asked, but not yet ordered, to change to a more
restrictive mode. At the moment, the economic effect of the latest COVID wave
is not high, and the state government will try to extend this as long as
possible. But the likelihood of a lock down of sorts, at least in Kyiv, is
high.