Kyiv Mayor’s Coronavirus Update – July 8, 2020
08.07.2020
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: Though Kyiv has seen a slight decline in new coronavirus cases in the last few days, they jumped again overnight.
As of today, 5779 infections have been laboratory confirmed in Kyiv, with 114 nеw оnеs over the past 24 hours. Among those are 46 women (aged 22-84), 61 men (18-75 years old) and seven children as well as five medical professionals. 21 people were admitted to hospitals. Over 4,000 PCR and antibody tests have been conducted in Kyiv in the past 24 hours.
52 new recoveries bring their total number to 1900. The majority of cases, 20 come from Darnytsa.
The city continues to increase the amount of PCR and antibody testing, with processing time decreased. Now this capacity stands at 94 tests conducted per 100,000 population.
The Kyiv Central Laboratory under Ukraine’s Health Ministry has processed over 46,000 samples since the beginning of the outbreak, with 30,000 samples collected by mobile response brigades. About 4.5% of all such tests prove positive for COVID-19.
If you feel unwell or have been in contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive, please get tested at once. Because unfortunately, the majority of people are not seeking medical care until the virus affects their lungs and the treatment becomes more complicated. Please pay attention to your health!
As you may know, close hours of restaurants, cafes and cinemas have been extended past 10 p.m. This does not apply though to other entertainment facilities. Some of them choose to ignore this ban and the police together with the National Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection conduct spot-checks in night clubs and discos. This is my strong belief that liability for endangering people’s health must be strict. If you witness such in-compliance, please call the police because we all must cooperate to control the virus spread.
I am often asked about the school resumption. According to the phased reopening plan of the national government, schools and universities can reopen and operate normally only in the 4th phase, in favourable coronavirus situation.
Unfortunately, most regions, including Kyiv are not ready for the next reopening stage due to the high virus prevalence. This is why we will continue with remote learning and each education facility has to prepare a plan for remote study. But still, the city is set to reopen schools once it is possible to do so safely. With this in mind, we have set aside budget funds preparing for the next school year. This year five kindergartens and two schools will open in Kyiv – either newly built or newly reconstructed. The enrollment process is almost finished and this year there are over 3,000 vacant places in elementary school across Kyiv.