Mayor Klitschko Coronavirus Upd – April 12, 2021
12.04.2021
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: Let me share the latest developments in the coronavirus situation in Kyiv and my opinion on why the national lockdown should be imposed as soon as possible.
The number of new cases in Kyiv has risen to 177,106, with new 537 cases in the past 24 hours. Unfortunately, however prоmіsіng this drop in new cases might lооk, it can be explained by the ‘weekend effect’, a decline in testing because some laboratories are closed on weekends.
But the high fatality rate gives an idea of what the situation is like. 42 new deaths were reported for the second day in a row during this weekend, taking the death toll to 3,932.
Newly infected are 304 women, aged 20-91 and 218 men, aged 19-86 and 15 children.
There are 148 overnight recoveries, raising their total number to 111,216.
76 patients were admitted to the hospitals with confirmed illness and 287 with suspected diagnosis. Most of them are serious cases and require supplemental oxygen.
The majority of new coronavirus transmissions, 160 came from Darnitsa.
As you may know, last Friday I urged the national government to impose a national lockdown, including an interstate travel ban and enforced compliance. However, they dіsmіssеd the suggеstіоn as inappropriate.
I want to stress that the situation is challenging not only in Kyiv but across the whole country. Experts warn of a very likely spike of new cases resulting in more hospitalisations and deaths. We can only hope for the best but still, the positive outcomes are highly unlikely because of intensive inter-regional travel, weak public adherence to the rules, no access to large-scale vaccinations.
I routinely inspect the infectious Disease units of municipal hospitals that face a shortage of oxygen and have to add more and more beds. Every day I receive dozens of calls pleading me to help with someone’s hospitalisation or burial.
But the people continue to disobey rules. They neglect wearing facial masks even in public places, continue to party and travel domestically. Plenty of coronavirus cases are travel-related! And surely some local public health improvement does not necessarily mean that the same is true for the entire country.
This is why I am calling for the national lockdown. This is a highly unpopular decision, but it will help save millions of Ukrainians! We cannot afford pandemic populism in such a dangerous situation.
A national lockdown will help us buу the time until a population-wide vaccination begins. According to international and well-known Ukrainian virologists and epidemiologists, experts from the Robert Koch Institute, lines of action taken to slоw dоwn the disease spread are common to all countries. I hope, the government is aware of the consequences of its action affecting the health and lives of the Ukrainian people.
The Kyiv municipal government does everything within its jurisdiction to slow the spread of the virus. In particular, we continue to deploy coronavirus beds and do this single-handedly. We provide medications, oxygen and PPE, pay municipal hospitals’ staff their increased monthly bonuses. We have escalated our response and tightened quarantine restrictions in Kyiv starting from March 20, before Kyiv was classified as a red zone. Those restrictions are in place until April 16, but further developments will depend on the ongoing epidemic situation. The Kyiv Emergency Commission will consider on April 14 the next steps that will be taken in Kyiv in this context.