Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – May 21
21.05.2021
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 in Kyiv remains stable. New cases and hospitalisations declined. Still, the virus has not disappeared. Please remember that our own negligence makes a sрrеаd of the coronavirus disease more lіkеlу.
There are new 453 infections in the past 24 hours and 11 more deaths. 2,307 people recovered overnight. The increase brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Kyiv to 203,780. 4,994 people have died so far since the beginning of the outbreak in Kyiv and 140,267 successfully recovered.
New cases include 264 women (aged 20-83), 167 men (29-90 years old) and 22 children. There are two more confirmed cases among medical staff. 40 patients were admitted to the city hospitals with a confirmed diagnosis and 187 with suspected illness.
Sviatoshynsky district leads, with 106 overnight virus transmissions, closely followed by Solomiansky district with 100 new cases.
Despite a decreasing trend of new hospital admissions, plenty of patients remain in serious health condition and stay in hospitals longer.
And as of today, there are 1,073 Covid-19 in-patients. 896 of them are seriously ill. 1,018 need supplemental oxygen. 35 patients are put on a ventilator. Hospitals are 21 per cent full. The current oxygen bed occupancy rate reaches 24 per cent.
Ukraine has the 6th highest Covid-19 infection rate and the 4th highest virus-related death toll in Europe. Since the beginning of this week 89 Kyivans have died due to the virus, including 45 women and 44 men. The majority of fatal cases are people over the age of 65. But recent fatalities also involve people aged 30-45. Most of them had pre-existing health problems (diabetes, heart disease, obesity and others) and died from Covid-19 complications.
Please, pay attention to your health and seek medical care if you have symptoms. Ignored symptoms and waiting until it is already too late are key reasons for the high death toll.
Let me remind you that along with the rest of the regions, Kyiv is running the Covid-19 vaccination programme using currently CoronaVac, AstraZeneca (produced in South Korea) та Pfizer vaccines provided by the Health Ministry. Over 107,000 people in Kyiv have already received their first dose and over 6,500 their second shot. They are mainly medical professionals, municipal social service workers, the elderly and the military. Also, education workers who are involved in the national high school graduation test campaign are being inoculated so far. We are putting a lot of effort to ensure safe national testing. This year over 135,000 students want to participate in the test which will be run in 183 schools where cleaning routines will be intensified. Law enforcement officers and health professionals will reinforce their presence in schools. Masks and disinfectants will be distributed among children and school staff.
Currently, all schools in Kyiv operate as normal. Active Covid-19 cases are 104 schools students and 52 teachers. 53 separate school classes in 40 schools in Kyiv are back to remote learning.
This year school is expected to end on May 28 and there are no plans to extend the school year since during the restrictions students have learnt from home. Due to the coronavirus restrictions, the end of the school year will be celebrated according to the public health guidelines, including social distancing and mask wearing. Celebrations must be held outdoors. Parents and guests would not be allowed to attend. Al those measures are taken to minimise the risk of virus transmission among students and their families. It has been one and a half months that Kyiv has lived under the lockdown policies and I am certain, no-one wants to go back to them.
Also, 11 nursery groups in eight kindergartens are temporarily closed due to the detected infections. One kindergarten is quarantined. The attendance rate is over 58 per cent.
Next weekend Kyiv celebrates City Day. Due to the restrictions this year’s events will be held on a limited basis and according to Event Safety Guidance. The festive weekend will begin on May 26. The main locations are Spivoche Pole and Arka Druzhby Narodiv Monument. A full list of activities is available on the site of the city administration.
I cannot help but say a few words about the searches law enforcers have been conducting in municipal companies and departments for two weeks already. The pressure on the local government is on. For two weeks the police have been searching papers with results of the financial audit that the government had already willingly submitted!
Those orchestrated searches and raids are nothing more than manipulation aiming to discredit the city government and attempts to destabilise the situation in Ukraine’s capital city.
I insist that law enforcement submits the update on further legal proceedings with regard to audit reports performed by the city administration. Since 2015 the Internal Audit Department of the city administration has performed 385 checks and submitted the findings on 316 entities to the police.