Due to surging COVID-19 infections, Kyiv has been marked at the orange level of the pandemic threat on an updated map of outbreak zones by the Health Ministry, and new quarantine restrictions in Ukraine’s capital came into force on Sept. 14.
At the beginning of August, Kyiv was in the green zone. However, by mid-August, the infection rate grew and the COVID-19 threat level was increased to yellow.
Altogether, Ukraine’s updated quarantine rules came into force in Ukraine on Aug. 3 as communities, rather than entire regions, are now divided into green, yellow, orange, and red levels of severity of the spread of COVID-19. Authorities of administrative districts, cities, and towns decide whether to tighten or relax quarantine restrictions depending on the level. The levels are based on three indicators that are reviewed every five days, such as hospital bed occupancy, number of PCR tests, and the number of cases per 100,000 people of the population.
Though not much has changed in the life of Kyivans since Sept. 14, there have been a few additional restrictions. For example, mass events may have no more than 220 people and one person per 10 square meters, hostels and other places that offer tourist accommodation services are banned (except for hotels), and group classes at vocational schools and higher education institutions are limited to 20 people. In addition, cities in the orange zone have to ban the work of nightclubs and restaurants at night. Moreover, 50% of seats at restaurants must be empty, and museums, libraries, and shopping centers must have no more than one person per 10 square meters.
Ukraine has registered 2,905 new COVID-19 cases as of 10 a.m. on Sept. 15. In the past 24 hours, 53 people have died, 546 were hospitalized and 1,267 patients have recovered. There are currently 85,628 active cases across Ukraine.
