Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – October 20, 2020
20.10.2020
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.
Klitschko: Over the past 24 hours new 462 coronavirus positive cases have been registered in Kyiv. A total of 31,310 Kyivans have been infected with the virus so far. There are 17 more fatalities, raising the death toll to 604. 207 people recovered to bring the total number of recoveries to 10,916.
The latest cases are 248 women (19-92 years old), 178 men (18-102 years old) and 36 children. 15 medical workers tested positive overnight.
52 patients were hospitalised in the past 24 hours.
Desniansky district is the most affected, with 97 new virus transmissions overnight.
We are further building up the testing capacity in Kyiv to quickly detect infected persons and curb the spread of the virus. The current testing ratio is almost 240 per 100,000 population.
Since the beginning of the outbreak in Kyiv, the municipal diagnostic facilities have conducted over 171,000 PCR tests and over 45,000 antibody tests. About 90,000 Kyivans have tested for the infection at home, with 1,164 overnight. Since March about 102,000 Kyivans have tested for the infection at home, with 944 overnight. The tests are being run also by privately-owned and state health facilities.
There are enough tests kits at the moment and we are continuing to stockpile them. But due to the rising demand for tests, we would like to expand Kyiv’s laboratory network to include the private and state-owned laboratories under the strict regulation of the national authority.
Speaking about the local government’s response, the city is allocating more funds to purchase medications and the PPE, deploying additional beds and paying extra payments to medical workers. Those of them who are now at the front lines definitely face the most difficult time today.
For instance, since the start of the outbreak in Kyiv the coronavirus first responders have made over 14,000 house calls to people with confirmed and suspected diagnosis and took almost 12,000 of them to hospital. Ten coronavirus specific emergency medical teams are working 24 hours to handle coronavirus cases and five more are visiting patients affected by COVID-19 during daytime hours. A total of 168 daytime and 136 nighttime emergency medical teams work for the Emergency Medical Service in Kyiv. They make about 2,000 visits per day averaging out at over 600,000 calls per year.
Yesterday I inspected the renovated Emergency Medical Unit No.8 in Sviatoshyn district which services almost 180,000 residents of the neighbourhood. It has been over 40 years since any major repair has been done there. The city paid ₴30 million toward the renovation project and ₴1 million to purchase the medications, protection equipment and disinfectants for the unit.
Another big issue is the upcoming election. Our task is to ensure the safety of voters and stations’ staff. With this aim, we set aside ₴1,3 million to distribute disinfectants and the PPE among 1,109 voting stations. Each station will be disinfected at least four times per day. Election workers have already received guidance on how to make the voting centres safe. They should check the temperature of visitors and whether they are wearing facial masks.
Please, remember to have a mask on you, observe physical distance and use hand sanitiser.
Now, on a more positive note today, a game between Juventus and Dynamo Kyiv will be played today at Olimpiysky Stadium in Kyiv. I am looking forward to the match and keeping my fingers crossed for Dynamo!