Ukraine will cancel all passenger flights after March 16 in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to Parliament Speaker Dmytro Razumkov.
The ban on flights will come into force at midnight on March 17, Razumkov said on the NewsOne TV channel late on March 13. He didn’t specify when the restrictions would end.
Land border crossings will stay open, but will only allow Ukrainian nationals to return to the country.
Razumkov’s announcement came as the latest in a series of measures taken by the Ukrainian government in response to the pandemic that, so far, has affected Ukraine less than its European counterparts. As of March 13, Ukraine had three confirmed cases of coronavirus, one of them fatal.
Earlier on March 13, Ukraine announced it will ban foreign nationals from entering the country for two weeks, starting on March 15.
CORONAVIRUS IN UKRAINE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- There have been three confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ukraine. The first case was identified in Ukraine on March 3.
- One person died from the COVID-19 in Ukraine.
- Ukraine shut schools and canceled mass events starting March 12 to prevent the disease’s spread. Some schools resisted.
- Here’s how Kyiv is affected.
- Doctor’s advice: How to stay safe.
- Ukrainians evacuated from the disease’s epicenter in Wuhan, China spent two weeks in quarantine in a sanatorium in Poltava Oblast and were released on March 5. Their arrival in Ukraine caused unrest.
Effects on economy:
- Here’s what the virus is doing to Ukraine’s economy.
- Ukrainian businesses respond to the crisis.
- The virus disrupts the transport sector. Ukrainian airlines canceled some flights to 16 countries due to the novel coronavirus.
- The National Bank of Ukraine continued to cut the policy rate while trying to buffer the hryvnia from coronavirus panic.
