Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – July 29, 2020
29.07.2020
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 132 coronavirus infections in Kyiv in the past 24 hours, totalling 7,932. 47 new recoveries raise their total number to 2,877. There are two more fatalities, bringing the death toll to 132.
New cases are 54 women (22-77 years old), 66 men (18-88 years old) and 12 children. Also, there are three healthcare workers among new infections. Hospitalised are 29 patients. In total, there have been over 2,080 hospitalisations since the beginning of the outbreak.
Dniprovsky district leads with 22 new cases, followed by Darnytsa with 19 new infections.
According to medical professionals, the disease is often described as insidious because recovery may take up to a month. 41 days is the longest recovery period registered in Kyiv so far.
Still, the majority of patients have mild symptoms and do not need to go to hospital. Children and young people usually show the fastest recovery, but we have recently seen an amazing recovery of a 93-year old woman that sets an impressive recovery record.
Kyiv today not only fights the coronavirus pandemic, but it also continues to grow and develop. The municipality implements the planned projects and does everything possible to lessen the impacts of the coronavirus crisis.
Yesterday the City Council approved another relief measure to support Kyiv’s small and medium business. In partnership with some banks which will provide soft loans for entrepreneurs, until December 31 the city is set to reimburse 99% of the interest cost, thus reducing the initial interest rate to 0.1%.
Also, to help SMEs affected by the crisis I have initiated a platform to facilitate the implementation of relief measures. Experts, opinion makers, entrepreneurs who are economics influencers together with the city government will suggest main strategies and practical solutions that manage the effects of the pandemic. We are starting to work at it, the first meeting will be held tomorrow. I will report any updates on this.
I am often asked about school resumption. On August 7 the Kyiv Department of Education will unveil a plan for school reopening based on several outbreak scenarios. Our priority is to reduce the virus spread among children and school staff and find the safest way to reopen schools which will meet the official health recommendation. Schools have already stockpiled disinfectants, hand sanitisers and protective masks.
We have committed almost ₴4 billion preparing for the next school year. The greatest part of funds went to the renovation of schools and kindergartens. This year five kindergartens will open in Kyiv – three newly built and two after a major overhaul. Additionally, two schools are undergoing massive reconstruction which will be completed by summer-end.