Ukraine’s government ruled on Dec. 2 not to extend the so-called “weekend lockdown,” which was imposed for three weekends to stem the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the country. But with case numbers still high, the likelihood of a full lockdown is increasing.
While the government has not made any official decisions, government officials increasingly suggest a lockdown is coming within weeks.
On Dec. 2, Halyna Yanchenko, a lawmaker with President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, said a lockdown would come no sooner than Dec. 25, the UkrInform news agency reported.
“According to my information, there won’t be (a lockdown) before Catholic Christmas,” she said.
A day earlier, Oleksiy Denisov, secretary of the National Defense and Security Council, said that a lockdown was in the works, but the government still had to decide exactly when it would be imposed — either in December or on Jan. 2.
“But the fact that there will be a lockdown — it’s 100%,” he said.
The weekend lockdown — which required non-essential businesses to close up shop on Saturday and Sunday — was intended to help the avoid another full lockdown. But many have called its effectiveness into doubt.
However, during a government meeting on Dec. 2, the country’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, asserted that the measure had resulted in 6,000 fewer new COVID-19 cases a day than expected by the government.
“The amplified effort on weekends somehow stabilized the situation in hospitals as well,” the official said.
“The stabilization is being registered in terms of the number of occupied hospital beds, which has been staying constantly at the level of 27,000-28,000.”
The government imposed a new set of restrictive measures, including the weekend lockdown, on Nov. 14 until the end of the month in a bid to prevent the country’s healthcare system from collapsing. The goal was also to avoid introducing a full-fledged lockdown that would do greater harm to Ukraine’s fragile economy.
The restrictions on Saturdays and Sundays included a ban on food catering businesses, bars, restaurants and markets. The weekend measures were widely criticized and even ignored by many city administrations, which saw the weekend lockdown as harmful to small businesses and unlikely to affect the spread of COVID-19.
Some cities, such as Lviv, Cherkasy and Ternopil, refused to follow the restrictions.
Instead of the controversial “weekend quarantine,” the government extended less strict “orange zone” restrictions across the country, which require people to wear masks in public places and restaurants and bars to shut down after 10 p.m.
Nonetheless, on Nov. 30, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov asserted that the weekend lockdown had not brought about the expected results and his ministry was not going to recommend extending it.
The minister accused the country’s general population of ignoring the quarantine rules.
