Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – October 30, 2020
30.10.2020
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.
As you know, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko is currently working at home. He is under quarantine, because of coronavirus. And today he is making a virtual appearance again. Our sign language interpreter Lesia Petrivska is working from home, she is also ill and quarantined.
Unfortunately, the virus is spreading really fast, not only in Ukraine but also in many other countries.
Kyiv sees a record jump in new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, with new 741 infections. A total of 36,768 Kyivans have been infected with the virus so far. 12,639 people successfully recovered, 234 of them overnight. 17 deaths rаіsеd the coronavirus dеаth tоll to 743.
The latest cases are 420 women (aged 19-88), 279 men (19-83 years old) and 42 children. There are 37 positive cases among medical staff. 83 patients were admitted to hospitals.
Desniansky district is the most affected, with 150 more virus transmissions overnight.
Hospital admissions are also rising, there are 1,857 people (37 children included) currently hospitalised with COVID-19. 466 of them have severe symptoms, 760 require oxygen therapy and 22 are put on ventilators. There are also another 258 in-patients whose test results are still pending.
428 schools in Kyiv have reopened after the autumn break. Eight schools remain closed as well as 436 classes in 133 schools due to the coronavirus infection.
Now, the Mayor joins us from his home.
Vitali Klitschko: Hello, everybody. I want to add to this that we have no plans to shut down all schools in Kyiv. Our priority is to ensure a safe school operation. By the way, according to the WHO, school closures do not contribute to flattening the curve. For instance, schools and kindergartens remain open in France despite a new strict lockdown which comes into force as of today. Even though the authorities have closed all educational facilities during the first pandemic wave in spring.
Now some words about hospitals.
The Kyiv government single-handedly has deployed almost 3,100 coronavirus beds in the municipal hospitals which are at 66 per cent capacity. We are using all our resources.
We repeatedly asked the national government to admit the infected Kyivans to the Kyiv-based national healthcare facilities, which capacity includes 11,000 beds and fully qualified staff. And I want to emphasize that we are still waiting for an answer…
My firm belief is that first, we have to engage all health resources available in hospitals and only then deploy mobile hospitals if the need arises. The Kyiv municipal healthcare department and the Kyiv Emergency Commission have already prepared a plan for mobile coronavirus units that could be established either in the Palace of Sports, the National Expocentre or the International Exposition Centre. Now we wait for the conclusion by healthcare experts whether those venues are fit for purpose.
Thank you, Mayor, thank you, Lesia! Get well soon!
Please, stay healthy and safe! Take good care of yourselves!