Kyiv will go from “yellow” to “orange” quarantine zone on Oct. 12 due to the growing COVID-19 infection rate and crowded hospitals. The decision was made on Oct. 9.
It means that gyms and culture establishments will close and restaurants won’t work past midnight. Events are limited to 100 attendees and must provide 20 square meters of space per person.
Kyiv has 16,589 active cases of COVID-19. On Oct. 9, Kyiv has registered 567 COVID-19 cases — a new record since the pandemic began.
Kyiv’s hospitals are running out of beds for COVID-19 patients — nearly 70% of beds are currently occupied, according to Oleg Ruban, head of the State Consumer Protection Service, one of the agencies enforcing sanitary rules. The bed occupancy rate is the key parameter for determining the levels of quarantine restrictions.
If the bed occupancy rate in Kyiv stays at over 60% for five consecutive days, the city will tighten anti-epidemic measures, Ruban said. If hospitals don’t receive more beds for patients, Kyiv will go to the highest, “red” level, when the restrictions are the most severe.
There are over 2,500 beds for COVID-19 patients in Kyiv, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko. As of Oct. 9, 1,675 people are receiving treatment in 20 local hospitals, 338 of them are in serious condition.
During the briefing on Oct. 9, Klitschko said that Kyiv needs new beds and more medical staff to treat COVID-19 patients. Otherwise, the capital soon won’t be able to accept new patients if the rate of new infections remains the same.
The government reviewed the hospital occupancy and new infections rate on Oct. 9 and updated the quarantine zones for each region, including the city of Kyiv.
The color-coded quarantine zones are assigned based on the number of cases in the last 14 days per 100,000 people and bed occupancy in hospitals.
Despite the fast-growing infection rate in Kyiv, the city still has a yellow level of threat, meaning that only the basic anti-epidemic measures remain in force. This includes mandatory mask-wearing on public transport and inside public establishments and no more than one person per 5 square meters during mass events. Cinemas must work at half-capacity. Care facilities for the elderly don’t allow visitors.
Depending on the level of threat in the city, local authorities can enforce different restrictive measures.
In the orange zone, accommodation services (hostels, holiday camps, resorts, and sanatoriums), except for hotels, as well as gyms, fitness centers, art and culture establishments must close. Planned hospitalizations have to be canceled. Mass events are limited to 100 people and no more than one person per 20 square meters. Restaurants and entertainment establishments may not work after midnight.
If a community has over 75% of hospital beds occupied with COVID-19 patients, the area is assigned a red level of threat. In addition to the orange level restrictions, the authorities shut down public transport, schools and educational establishments, shopping malls, cafes, and restaurants.
As the pandemic is rapidly expanding to eastern Ukraine, hospitals in Odesa, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv oblasts also experience the shortages of free beds. In Donetsk Oblast, for example, all beds are currently occupied.
According to Health Minister Maksym Stepanov, more than 20,000 COVID-19 patients were treated in the country’s hospitals as of Oct. 8. Officially, hospitals can accept a maximum of 37,000 COVID-19 patients.
