The number of officially confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ukraine has reached 645 as of 10 p.m. of March 31, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health. Seventeen people have been killed by the disease, adding four people since the previous update on March 30.
Ukraine’s top sanitary doctor says 240 hospitals, 67,000 beds ready for COVID-19 patients. According to Lyashko, there are currently 1,882 lung ventilators in Ukraine. Prior to that, on March 12, the health ministry reported that there were 605 lung ventilators.
JP Morgan bank gives Ukraine least negative economic forecast in 2020. The investment bank has radically revised its estimates of Ukraine’s economic growth in 2020, giving the Ukrainian economy what is probably the most optimistic forecast around.
Ukraine explainer: Where to order groceries, meals, more for delivery in Kyiv. Since Ukraine shut down stores and restaurants and restricted public transportation to employees of critical enterprises to stop the spread of COVID-19, delivery has become one of the best options to shop.
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President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have discussed further EU aid to Ukraine amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discussed the possibility of extra lending from the World Bank. So far, beyond the tentative $8 billion line of credit between Ukraine and the International Monetary Fund, Ukraine also received pledges of an extra 40 million euros from the European Investment Bank, and 80 million from the European Commission, as well as $1.2 million from the United States.
The International Exhibition Center on the left bank of Kyiv’s Dnipro river could become a huge COVID-19 field hospital for the capital. The coordinator of the volunteer branch of Kyiv’s emergency services told Ukrainian media that plans were already in place to convert the venue if needed.
Quarantine measures in Ukraine will last at least two months, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has said. “I think, in the end, we will have to stay in quarantine for at least two months, just as the whole of Europe,” Avakov said.
