Tighter confinement will have to be imposed in part of Ukraine, the spread of the new coronavirus accelerating since the lifting of many restrictions on May 11, the government announced on Friday.
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" In some regions, strict restrictions must be imposed, " said Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov, the country having recorded, in three days, a third daily record of new cases, with 921 infections. However, he did not indicate where, when and what measures would be taken.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky advocated the need to better explain to citizens the objectives of confinement and social distancing. " When people understand that, they will respect quarantine better ," he said.
985 dead
Ukraine has counted 34,984 cases of Covid-19 and 985 deaths since the start of the epidemic. On May 11, at the start of the deconfinement, there were 15,648 and 408 respectively. Ukrainian authorities indicated that 15 of the 24 regions registered increases in contamination, with the western regions of Lviv and Rivne particularly affected. Hospitalizations are also on the rise.
The government has explained this trend by the Ukrainians' failure to respect social distancing measures, while parks, restaurants and beauty salons reopened last month and urban and national transport resumed service in June.
Friday, a Ukrainian court fined 17,000 hryvnias (561 euros) for violation of health rules a senior official of epidemiological control who came to a cafe without a surgical mask. In addition to Ukraine, two other former Soviet republics, Armenia and Azerbaijan, are facing an increase in coronavirus cases after easing the restrictive measures. Azerbaijan has even decided to reimpose strict confinement from Monday until August 1.
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