On June 11, Ukraine recorded 689 new cases of COVID-19, a record since the start of the pandemic. That would be worrying news had this happened in the middle of the country’s lockdown to halt the spread of the virus. It’s doubly worrying now, as Ukraine is rapidly reopening and returning to normal economic life.
In many regions of the country, indoor restaurants have reopened. Kindergartens are again operating. Domestic flights are restarting. And, on June 15, Ukraine plans to relaunch international flights. In Kyiv, one of the epicenters of the local epidemic, indoor restaurants remain closed, but it is readily apparent that, for most people, quarantine is over.
What explains the uptick in new cases?
Viktor Lyashko, Ukraine’s top sanitary doctor, attributes the June 11 “anti-record” to the Ministry of Health processing COVID-19 tests more quickly. But Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has blamed the broader increase since the country began reopening on Ukrainians’ “frivolous attitude” toward quarantine. He’s not entirely wrong. Today, one sees fewer Ukrainians wearing masks — and wearing them correctly — in public places like stores, public transport and crowds.
But Stepanov’s criticisms stand on shaky ground thanks to the actions of President Volodymyr Zelensky. On June 3, while visiting Khmelnytsky, a city of 265,000 people about 300 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, he and other top officials stopped for a rest in a coffee shop — despite the fact that indoor service at restaurants and cafes was not allowed until June 5.
Although Zelensky was ultimately fined for the violation, it didn’t undo the damage. If the president doesn’t take quarantine seriously, why should the public?
No one can blame Ukrainians for returning to some semblance of normal life. And no one can blame the government for relaxing restrictions. It is both economically and psychologically necessary. But the country risks turning what has been, so far, a fairly small COVID-19 epidemic into a big one through carelessness and negligence.
Ukraine could be doing much more to ensure that it reopens safely. For starters, the government needs to find a way to ensure that citizens continue to wear masks in public places. A recent study by Cambridge University and Greenwich University in the U.K. concluded that universal mask-wearing could, when combined with physical distancing and some lockdown measures, allow economies to reopen without causing a second wave of COVID-19 infections that could overpower the health-care system, Reuters reported on June 10.
