Ukraine has announced a month-long nationwide emergency. The government has extended emergency measures because of the coronavirus pandemic. It will last until April 24. “We are extending the quarantine and imposing a state of emergency on the state of Ukraine, throughout its entire territory for 30 days,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting on March 25. This measure could be extended if necessary, he added.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers will create a stabilization fund. The Cabinet will create a roughly Hr 200 billion ($7.17 billion) stabilization fund for the country, Shmygal stated on the ICTV television channel’s talk show Svoboda Slova on March 24. The prime minister added that a strategic think tank will be created to help solve problems related to the epidemic.
If Ukraine tightens up the quarantine, half of Ukraine’s population will run out of money in a month, according to a poll by marketing agency Gradus. 57% of Ukrainians won’t have enough money to hold out for more than four weeks if the quarantine continues. Meanwhile, 7% out of those 57% can survive only for a few days; just 6.3% have savings that will last for six months or more, the poll reads. The poorest Ukrainians, according to it, are those who live in eastern Ukraine, where people on average said they’d run out of money in two weeks.
Ukraine’s government will give confiscated medical equipment to hospitals. The Cabinet of Ministers has authorized the free transfer of confiscated medical suits, gowns, masks, respirators, gloves and glasses to Ukrainian healthcare facilities.
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) did not hold a currency intervention for the first time in roughly 2 weeks as the hryvnia’s fluctuations seemed to stabilize. Meanwhile, demand for cash dollars, which were in tight supply, was significant. The NBU is shortly expecting to receive a shipment of dollars, according to banking sector representatives.
A vote on the key bank bill will likely be pushed back to March 28, along with the emergency session of parliament that was originally intended to be held on March 26. COVID-19 concerns may prevent lawmakers from making it. Passage of the law is a prerequisite for an International Monetary Fund loan of at least $5.5 billion that Ukraine needs to soften the economic blow of the epidemic. Many Servant of the People lawmakers called for the law’s passage, while lawmakers Oleksandr Dubinsky and Ihor Palytsa, who have been linked to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, filed alternate versions of the draft law.
Taxi service Uklon will transport medical workers for free in Ukraine. Uklon will provide the free service in all fifteen cities where it operates, while its drivers will wear medical masks and offer hand disinfectants. “To date, the process has already been launched in Lviv, in the coming days it will be operating in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Mariupol and Dnipro,” Uklon co-founder Serhiy Smus said.
Nova Poshta is seeking 2,000 couriers to help with a surge in demand. The company is staying active during the extended quarantine period, as many Ukrainians are forced to use online orders to get everything they need in a timely fashion.
