New rules to reopen Kyiv metro: masks, temperature checks, disinfection

As the Kyiv metro prepares to reopen on May 25, the city administration has published official guidelines for using the capital’s subway system during the global COVID-19 pandemic. 

According to the new rules, all passengers must wear masks and maintain a distance of 1.5 meters from one another when in line and on the platform. Some may be subject to temperature screenings.

The new regulations represent an attempt to safely relaunch Kyiv’s most important — and often most crowded — form of public transportation as the country tries to return to normal economic life after over two months of lockdown.

According to the Kyiv City State Administration, all 52 stations of the Kyiv metro will be equipped with staff tasked with checking that passengers are wearing masks and measuring their temperatures. Passengers who appear to show symptoms of an upper-respiratory infection will be required to undergo a temperature screening. Only those with a temperature below 37.2 degrees Celsius will be permitted to enter the metro system.

Additionally, all platforms will be marked to help people stay 1.5 meters apart. The city administration did not indicate whether distancing will be enforced in the metro trains themselves.

Both trains and stations will be disinfected every three hours.

In 2019, the Kyiv metro officially transported 495 million passengers, more than one million people per day.

As of May 23, all ground transportation in Kyiv — including buses, trolleybuses and streetcars — has resumed full operation.

However, the city barely passed the threshold to be allowed to ease quarantine measures and relaunch public transport. 

On May 20, the Ukrainian government approved a decision to start lifting restrictions on May 22 under a new “adaptive quarantine” plan. The government plans to ease restrictions every 10 days for oblasts that meet certain criteria up until June 22, the new expiration date for the quarantine.

Read More: Ukraine loosens quarantine in some regions, Kyiv barely skirts by

Kyiv initially didn’t meet the government’s criteria. However, after a recalculation, the health ministry allowed the city to reopen public transport, which had been closed since March 17.

Kyiv wasn’t the only city to barely squeeze by. As of the morning of May 23, twelve Ukrainian regions weren’t allowed to ease quarantine measures. By the end of the day, only six were left.

Kyiv is one of three Ukrainian cities with a metro system. The other two cities, Kharkiv and Dnipro, also plan to reopen their subways on May 25. Both will also require passengers to wear masks.

As of May 24, Kyiv is the second largest hotbed of COVID-19 in Ukraine, with 2,623 confirmed cases. Within the past 24 hours, the city recorded an increase in newly identified cases, with 54 people testing positive for COVID-19.

The surrounding Kyiv Oblast, which has 1,419 confirmed cases, is maintaining strict quarantine measures.