Back To Life

On May 12, for the first time in two months, life in Kyiv resembled its pre-coronavirus state, made even more glorious by the warm spring weather.

While the city’s residents lined up outside of cafes’ takeout windows and strolled the streets, stores and salons took down their “closed” signs and opened the doors to customers. The roads were packed with traffic jams.

Kyiv’s transformation followed the decision by the central government and city authorities to ease some of the quarantine measures that kept residents mostly at home since March 12.

The new rules allow most enterprises to go back to business with a number of limits and precautions. The public is now allowed to visit parks and squares and gather in bigger groups.

“Looking for a balance between people’s fatigue from quarantine and preventing the disease outbreak, we decided to ease the restrictions on people being out,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on Facebook on May 13.

The rollback came even before Ukraine experienced a steady decline in the number of new cases or deaths from COVID-19. The number of active cases has been slowly growing in Ukraine, often ranging from 300 to 500 daily cases since mid-April. Although the figures started to drop at the beginning of May, they quickly went back up.

As of May 14, Ukraine officially had confirmed 16,847 COVID-19 cases. In total, 456 people have died from the disease in Ukraine and 4,143 patients have recovered.

Despite the data, a restless public decided to relax the quarantine themselves, even before the authorities eased up.

Businesses, meanwhile, rolled out protests demanding permission to go back to work.

Just like country leaders all over the world, the Ukrainian authorities faced the choice between slowing the spread of the coronavirus by continuing the stay-at-home orders and keeping businesses on hold versus saving the economy, which in Ukraine is forecasted to drop 11% in the second quarter of 2020.

And while many saluted the government’s rollback, the move might pose new risks to the public health – a trend seen in a number of other countries that have already eased the quarantine.

All of it could have been coordinated better: The returning workers had no Kyiv Metro, still closed, to get them to the job and back. And while three airlines started selling tickets for international flights after May 22, the last official date of the lockdown, the government put the kibosh on those plans.

City energy

According to several polls conducted by the Rating sociological research organization, most Ukrainians supported the quarantine measures throughout March and April, as well as approved of their intensification if the outbreak spikes.

However, Rating also discovered that the longer the lockdown lasts, the more Ukrainians showed signs of depression, anxiety, tiredness and panic, mainly because of little physical activity and the lack of new events and emotions.

So it’s no wonder that the further into the quarantine, the more Ukrainians appeared to violate the restrictions. Parks were crowded both on weekends and throughout the weekdays despite the ban. People gathered in big groups and neglected the face mask order and social distancing.

When Shmyhal announced the government would start the rollback, the decision basically formalized what the public has already started doing.

In addition to that, the order allowed restaurants and bars to serve customers on the outside terraces and do takeout (although many have done it during the quarantine). Beauty salons and hairdressers, stores that are up to 300 square meters in space, manufacturing enterprises and those offering various services were allowed to get back to business.

Days later, the government pushed even more liberations allowing people to gather in groups of eight on the streets and in groups of four on terraces.

Although Kyiv subway remains shut down and public transport is only available for essential workers, city residents found a way to make it to the center. Eager to get a taste of the good old city life, some took taxis, while others came by car. As a result, the city has been crammed with traffic jams on a daily basis ever since.

Irma Buzova (R) chats with her friend as they celebrate her 17th birthday at Milk Bar on the first day of the quarantine relief on May 12, 2020, in Kyiv. After a two-months lockdown, the authorities allowed restaurants to serve customers on their outside terraces. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

In one of those taxis traveling to the heart of the city on May 12 was Irma Buzova, who was turning 17 on the same day.

Buzova is a college student who hasn’t really left her neighborhood in the Obolon district ever since she switched to remote studying. When the quarantine liberation and her birthday, however, conveniently coincided, she headed to her favorite eatery, Milk Bar, to enjoy a little celebration with a friend on a terrace.

“I missed tasty food,” Buzova told the Kyiv Post. “Since I already had cake today, I want to taste something savory,” she added.

After a celebratory meal, Buzova planned to stroll the city center.

“I love a lot this lively atmosphere, seeing people,” Buzova said. “I miss it very much.”

Other Kyivans rushed to use services, which haven’t been available through the quarantine.

Strategy management consultant Andriy Dlihach stopped by his favorite barbershop Frisor in between attending work meetings on May 12.

Dlihach got a fresh haircut, the first one since March. He says that while visiting hairdressers is a necessity, there are many things he truly missed.

Since Dlihach lives alone, he admits having felt a bit lonely during the lockdown, so he looks forward to meeting people in restaurants, joining brainstorms and just feeling emotions from communication. He says that on the first day of the relief he already felt a change in the air.

“People’s mood seems to be very positive,” Dlihach told the Kyiv Post. “At least there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.”

Back to business

All kinds of enterprises have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak. Not being able to make any revenue or making a meager part of it, businesses somehow had to keep paying for lease and keep their stuff.

So by late April-early May, hundreds of small enterprises took to the street the demand to get back to work carrying out several protests in front of the governmental building. Restaurant owners rallied for open terraces with a creative table setup in front of the Presidential Administration building.

The business community’s pressure pushed the government to ease the restrictions.

The new rules ordered restaurants to set tables 1.5 meters away from each other, provide their employees with masks and sanitizers and serve food and drinks in takeout packaging. Since many eateries couldn’t make even half of their regular revenue by doing delivery during quarantine, they were eager to follow the new limits if it gave a chance to make more.

Numerous restaurants opened up on May 12 announcing the exciting news on social media, posting pictures of the newly-set outside tables and inviting customers to visit.

“We can’t stop being happy about the opening of the summer terrace with you,” Blur Coffee Shop wrote on Instagram.

Blur Coffee Shop, actually, went further to ensure they get to serve guests in any circumstances and stocked up on raincoats in case of rainfall.

“There’s even some romance in it,” the cafe wrote.

Unlike restaurants, many other businesses had little or no choice to make any revenue during the lockdown, so as soon as the permission was granted, they rushed to open up.

Strategic management consultant Andriy Dlihach looks in the mirror as the barber fixes his hair after giving him a haircut at the Frisor Barbershop on the first day of the quarantine relief on May 12, 2020, in Kyiv. After two months of total shutdown, the authorities allowed hairdressers and beauty salons to get back to business. (Oleg Petrasiuk)

One of them was Frisor, a 38-spot barbershop chain that provides haircuts all over Ukraine.

Before their barber pole signs started rolling again, the chain’s owner Dmytro Verkhovetskyi had to send all the staff on unpaid leave and negotiate discounts for lease. He says that had the lockdown lasted a month longer, he would have had to close at least a third of his barbershops.

“We expected the ease earlier but I’m happy that it at least started now,” Verkhovetskyi told the Kyiv Post.

Now Frisor has a chance to survive. Since the quarantine relief, it experienced a flock of customers, who haven’t been able to get haircuts for two months.

Verkhovetskyi says that he expects this rush to last for about two weeks and predicts they would have to decrease prices later to meet people’s declined purchasing power. In addition, some of their barbers worked privately during the lockdown and the businessman says that some of them won’t return to work after attracting their own customer base.

Nevertheless, Frisor’s owner is feeling optimistic about their future.

“We will have to take all possible measures to not lose customers and working places,” Verkhovetskyi says.

Risks

According to Shmyhal, Ukraine is now going through the plateau phase of the outbreak detecting about the same number of cases every day.

On May 14, for the first time, the country’s number of recovered people exceeded the number of infected ones over a day.

Shmyhal says that if the situation continues to develop “according to such positive scenario,” the government will impose new relief measures on May 22, a date the quarantine is currently set to last till.

According to the prime minister, if the number of cases declines steadily for 10 days, Ukraine will reopen hotels, gyms, allow small athletic competitions and graduate students to go back to schools and universities.

Just like many other world leaders, the Ukrainian authorities had to look for a balance between protecting the population and reducing the harm to the economy.

Ukraine’s economy is expected to drop 11% in the second quarter of 2020. Shmyhal said that 100,000 Ukrainians have already filed for unemployment, while some experts predict the number might reach 500,000.

However, public health experts all over the world warn against reopening countries too early. Many say that unless mass testing and steady decline in cases are in place, exiting quarantine can cause new spikes of infections. Ukraine lags behind in testing having performed a total of 202,495.

But, even when those conditions are met, there’s no guarantee there won’t be a resurgence of COVID-19.

South Korea, which was considered a success in battling the outbreak, reported a new cluster of cases right after it started to ease up and predicted a possible second wave.

Germany, a country with one of the most effective strategies of fighting the spread of COVID-19, also detected some localized outbreaks after lifting restrictions. The country considers reimposing some measures in those areas.

While Ukraine has started to ease up, the authorities warn that it’s too early to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Easing quarantine does not mean that the coronavirus is no longer present or has become less dangerous,” Shmyhal wrote on Facebook.