Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – September 16, 2020
16.09.2020
The mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko held a briefing providing an update on the coronavirus situation in Ukraine’s capital and the measures the city is taking to respond.
Klitschko: The coronavirus situation remains quite alarming because we have 356 new COVID-19 positive cases and eight deaths in the past 24 hours. There are also 38 new hospitalisations.
The number of coronavirus cases in Kyiv has reached 18,070.
The number of fatalities rose to 291. 134 patients recovered bringing the total number of recoveries to 5,519.
Eight more medical workers tested positive overnight. New cases include 184 women (18-76 years old), 139 men (18-83 years old) and 33 children.
The majority of cases came from Darnytsa, 74 followed by Dniprovsky district, 66.
Another bad news is that the COVID-19 related death toll is rising in Kyiv and across Ukraine. Coronavirus fatalities are mainly Kyivans aged 65 years and over. There are 192 such deaths so far from this age group. The youngest patient who has died from the coronavirus infection was a 25-year-old woman from Dniprovsky district and the oldest a 96-year-old-man from Solomiansky district.
COVID-19 is not the seasonal flu, so please, be careful! Please, avoid large gatherings and observe safety rules. Much depends on your attitude: your health and life, the health and life of others and the state of Kyiv’s healthcare system. The main task is to avoid the sharp rise in infections because we can always deploy more beds, but who will treat us?
Now a few words about the situation in schools. I want to stress that it is controllable. Classes and schools with confirmed coronavirus cases are quarantined and continue to study remotely. Currently, four schools in Kyiv are closed due to the positive cases among teachers. 188 classes in 90 schools across the city are back to remote learning due to virus transmissions among students. 207 school students and 108 teachers are active coronavirus cases so far.
Also, four groups in kindergartens in Darnytsa and Podil are in quarantine and temporarily closed. Three facilities have reopened after the quarantine. In total, operating are 561 municipal kindergartens out of 568. The rest are closed due to the scheduled repairs. The current kindergarten attendance is almost 51%.
As you may know, according to the national government’s decision starting September 14 Kyiv is designated as the ‘orange zone’. Among other things, the decision suspends the elective surgeries, continuing only with emergency cases, baby deliveries and post-natal care, cancer surgeries and palliative care. The responsibility to decide which operations cannot be postponed lies with the doctors.
We will overcome this challenge if we are careful and aware.