Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – April 24, 2020
24.04.2020
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: There are new 63 coronavirus cases in Kyiv in the past 24 hours. A total of 1,122 Kyivans have been infected with COVID-19 so far.
New cases include 22 women (21-82 years old), 35 men (18-87 years old) and six boys (6-14 years old). Also, nine monks are among those newly infected: five from Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra, three – from Pokrovsky Holosiivsky Monastery and a nun of St. Panteleimon Convent. Kyiv-Pecherska Lavra, Ioninsky Monastery and Pokrovsky Holosiivsky Monastery are still under quarantine.
20 people were admitted to the city hospitals. I am pleased to report that eight more patients have recovered overnight, tаkіng іt up to a tоtаl of 53.
Today I will provide more updated coronavirus statistics, to give you a full picture of what is happening in Kyiv.
As of today, 217 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized. More 57 persons are at the hospitals waiting for their screening results.
39 grown-up patients remain in serious condition and two of them are on a ventilator.
Overall 14 city hospitals have been set up as dedicated coronavirus treatment facilities, with 1,700 beds in total and 400 ventilators available. If the situation worsens, 7,000 critical care beds are ready to be deployed.
Oleksandrivska hospital is оn the frоnt line of the outbreak, it was the clinic that admitted the first coronavirus infected patients in Kyiv. Its infection unit is already approaching its full capacity with new patients, but it is ready to scale up to 100 beds.
By the way, I want to say thank for a portable mobile isolated room which has been donated to Oleksandrivska hospital. This is an airtight room, fitted with an oxygen mask and built-in gloves that allows to safely transfer coronavirus patient within the hospital.
The coronavirus treatment depends on the seriousness of a patient’s condition, whether a patient has other health concerns or complications. It costs on average ₴5,000 to ₴15,000 a day to treat a coronavirus-infected individual. Over 90% of drugs that are used to ease the disease are available for patients at the hospitals free of charge. People who do not require hospitalisation and recover at home buy drugs at their own expense. The city has spent ₴101 million to purchase some medications that are used to treat coronavirus patients. Those are antibiotics, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and other drugs – 17 in total.
I am never getting tired of thanking our front-line health workers, doctors, nurses and attendants who keep working hard to save Kyivans. They are the ones who risk their own health Unfortunately, medics account for 10% of all coronavirus cases in Kyiv. There are 111 healthcare workers in Kyiv who got infected with the virus and 16 of them are being treated at hospitals.
By the way, according to the latest survey among medical workers, 40% of them think that the restrictions should be tightened. The majority is certain that the lockdown has not been imposed too early. 33% believe that the restrictions should come even earlier. Let me stress that this is an opinion of medical professionals who deal with the infection every day.
Kyiv was the first city in Ukraine to impose the lockdown. The first pandemic measures in Kyiv were taken on March 11. And today we have 1,122 confirmed positive coronavirus cases per over 3-million population. Kyiv is the second hardest-hit area in Ukraine after the Chernivtsy region where there are almost 1,200 reported cases per less than 1 million residents.
By today Prague with 1.3-million population reports almost 1,700 coronavirus cases. The Czech capital imposed the lockdown on March 16. Minsk with 2 million residents that has not still ordered a quarantine, reports over 3,000 cases! Only recently I talked to my colleague from Hamburg. The first case there was registered on February 28. The lockdown was imposed on March 16. Now there are over 4300 infected patients and over 120 deaths. He said the restrictions should have been in place much earlier.
Now you see, that if not for restrictions imposed early, we would have been in more dire circumstances. We are trying to avoid the infection spike as much as possible, to prevent a collapse of the public healthcare.
This is why every single day I urge you to respect the quarantine order and do everything possible to stay safe. Again, this is a matter of your health and even life!
We will ease the restrictions but not until we know that the реаk іs оvеr. This peak still lies ahead. We have fewer cases than other countries thanks to everyone who keeps following the stay-home order. Our main priority is to protect the lives of people!
Now I want to tell you how Kyiv is responding to the air pollution issue. Unfortunately, for over past two weeks almost 600 local fire incidents were registered! Also, wildfires in Chornobyl zone and in Zhytomyr region added to bad air quality in Kyiv. The air is still not clear.
A working group has been formed jointly by Kyiv and Kyiv region governments to tackle the air pollution problem and prevent fires. In particular, responsibility for setting a fire will be increased, Kyiv’s and the regional rescuers will coordinate their effort and streamline operations, a stationed air quality system will be launched both in the city and region.
Friends, life will go back to normal! Again there will be cheerful crowds on Kyiv streets! We have to be patient just a bit more, to make sure that all Kyivans are safe and healthy and the outbreak is stopped.
The warmth has come, so will bright days!
