COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine

The 2019–20 coronavirus pandemic was confirmed to have spread to Ukraine when its first case was confirmed to be hospitalized in Chernivtsi Oblast on 3 March 2020, a man who had travelled from Italy to Romania by plane and then arrived in Ukraine by car.

As of 20 March, an emergency was declared in Kiev Oblast, Chernivtsi Oblast, Zhytomyr Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and in the city of Kiev.

Background

On 12 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, who had initially come to the attention of the WHO on 31 December 2019.

Unlike SARS of 2003, the case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.

Timeline

Template:2019–20 coronavirus pandemic data/Ukraine medical cases chart

File:Passengers' body temperature check in KBP (6).jpg

Staff monitoring passengers' body temperature on board of the plane in Boryspil International Airport

On 27 January 2020, SkyUp, a Ukrainian low-cost charter airline, announced that it had suspended flights to Sanya, Hainan, until March.

On 4 February, Ukraine International Airlines suspended its charter service to Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Hainan. Initially, the suspension was to last until 24 February, although the airline had not yet indicated that it will resume flights.

On 24 February, Boryspil International Airport and Kiev International Airport were supposed to implement thermal screening procedures for travellers from Italy, but the staff were either underequipped with thermal cameras or ignored the protocol.

On 3 March, Ukraine announced its first confirmed SARS-CoV-2 case, a man who had travelled from Italy to Romania by plane and then arrived in Ukraine by car.

On 12 March, two more SARS-CoV-2 cases were confirmed in Ukraine. The diagnosis was confirmed for a man in Chernivtsi Oblast, whose wife had recently came from Italy, and for an elderly woman in Zhytomyr Oblast, who had returned from Poland on 1 March. The 71-year-old woman from Radomyshl, Zhytomyr Oblast, died on 13 March, becoming the first fatal case in the country.

On 16 March, two new cases were confirmed in Chernivtsi Oblast, and two others in Kiev. In Kiev, one of the persons concerned was a student who had contacted the infected woman in Zhytomyr region, while the other is a woman who had come back from France.

On 17 March, six more cases were confirmed in Chernivtsi Oblast, all of them had contacted the previously known case, including the 33-year-old woman who had died. The first cases of children being infected were reported. One case was confirmed in Kiev Oblast, a man who had recently come from abroad, who later appeared to be a People's Deputy of Ukraine.

On 18 March, member of the Ukrainian parliament Serhii Shakhov stated that he was SARS-CoV-2 positive after denying it earlier in the day. Kyiv Post counted Shakhov as being among the total of 14 people in Ukraine with laboratory confirmations of being SARS-CoV-2 positive.

Later that day, two new cases were announced: the second one for Kiev Oblast (the wife of the man earlier reported) and the first one for Donetsk Oblast (52-year-old man who has visited Egypt).

On 19 March, the 3rd case was confirmed in Kiev for person who had come back from Switzerland, and the second one in Zhytomyr Oblast for a 56-year-old man from Zhytomyr who had returned from Austria. The same day, the first cases were reported in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, also 5 new cases were reported in Chernivtsi Oblast increasing the total number of infected in Ukraine to 26.

On 20 March, the first case of recovery from COVID-19 was reported for a man in Chernivtsi who was the first infected person in the country. Same day, 15 new positive tests of COVID-19 were confirmed across Ukraine: Chernivtsi Oblast (10 additional cases), Lviv Oblast (59-years doctor who had come back from Germany), Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (1 case), Kharkiv Oblast (first case), Kiev Oblast (1 case), Ternopil Oblast (first case). It increased the total number of COVID-19 cases in Ukraine to 41.Template:Citation needed (The case from Kharkiv Oblast, was a woman who had been diagnosed in Kiev, and was being treated in Kiev, and on 21 March was transferred from the statistics for Kharkiv to those for Kiev.)

On 21 March, according to the Ministry of Health the total confirmed cases in Ukraine was 47. There were either six or seven new cases confirmed in Kiev bringing the total to ten (of these eight had caught the disease abroad). In Donetsk Oblast, the first case of a coronavirus was recorded and an emergency was declared in the oblast. The first patient was confirmed in Lutsk, and in the disputed Crimea. There were 417 people suspected of having coronavirus in the disputed Crimea and Sevastopol at the end of 21 March.

As of 10:00 on 23 March, there were 73 confirmed cases in Ukraine. During the previous 24 hours, 26 new cases had been confirmed.

As of 10:00 on 24 March, 11 new cases had been confirmed in Ukraine during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 84 confirmed cases. This was later raised to 97 confirmed cases. The head of the Chernivtsi Oblast state administration, Serhiy Osachuk, said that 13 new cases of the disease had been confirmed in Chernivtsi Oblast. Currently, there were 38 infected people in the Ukrainian part of Bukovina.

At 10:00 on 25 March, the Ministry of Healthcare stated that 29 new cases had been confirmed in Ukraine during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 113 confirmed cases. These included the first case in Volyn Oblast, the first 2 cases in Zaporizhia Oblast, two more cases in Kiev, seven more in Kiev Oblast, the first case in Luhansk oblast, the first case in Odessa Oblast, two more cases in Ternopil Oblast, and the 13 new cases in Chernivtsi Oblast that had been reported in the media the previous day. One person in Ternopil Oblast died of the disease.

On 25 March, the Government introduced a 30-day emergency regime across Ukraine that is tentatively planned to end on 24 April 2020.

At 10:00 on 26 March, the Ministry of Healthcare stated that 43 new cases had been confirmed in Ukraine during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 156 confirmed cases. One person in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast died of the disease. By the end of 26 March, there were five confirmed cases in Sevastopol, and 9 in the rest of Crimea; over 3,000 people were suspected of having the disease, and nearly 90 were isolated in hospitals in Crimea (including Sevastopol).

At 10:00 on 27 March, the Ministry announced that 62 more cases had been confirmed in Ukraine in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 218 confirmed cases. Three more patients from Chernivtsi had recovered from the disease. This brought up to four the number of recovered people: three adults and a child. Repeated laboratory tests showed no trace of the virus, and another polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test had shown a negative reaction twice in a row.

At 10:00 on 28 March, the Ministry announced that 93 more cases had been confirmed in Ukraine in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 311 confirmed cases. Three more people had died, bringing the total to eight. Another person had recovered, bringing the total to five (four adults and one child). There were reported cases in all parts of Ukraine, except Kirovohrad Oblast.

At 10:00 on 29 March, the Ministry announced that 109 new cases had been confirmed, bringing the total to 418. There had been 248 new reports of suspicion of the disease, bringing the total to 1966 since the start of the year. Four cases had been confirmed in Kirovohrad Oblast. The two cases (one per Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv Oblasts) shown in the statistics for 28 March had been moved to the statistics for Kiev.

Since 6 April, wearing a face mask is required by the government in public places. In Kiev, public places were clarified to include parks and streets.

On April 21, it was reported that the Ministry plans to request an extension of the quarantine until May 12, albeit with some exceptions, such as opening libraries and museums. A day later, the government extended the quarantine measures until May 11; all measures remain in place, with the exception of granting access to public transport to potential blood donors.