Ukraine to extend quarantine to June 22, ease restrictions on May 22

The Ukrainian government has approved a decision to start stage two of easing COVID-19 quarantine restrictions beginning on May 22 under a new “adaptive quarantine” plan. The government will ease restrictions every 10 days for oblasts that meet certain criteria up until June 22, the new expiration date for the quarantine.

The government plans to publish a decree formalizing its plans on May 21, both Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said at a government meeting on May 20.

Starting May 22, the government will allow hotels to reopen, except for their indoor restaurants and swimming pools. It will also allow sporting events without spectators (with no more than 50 participants unless agreed with the health ministry) and holding church services (with no more than 1 person per square meter in the building), according to Stepanov.

On May 22, the government will also restore public transport in cities, public transport connecting cities with suburban areas and cities within one oblast, Stepanov said.

Later, on May 25, the government will also allow metro and kindergartens to reopen, according to Stepanov. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko repeatedly asked the national government to reopen the metro after the city suffered from frequent traffic jams. And Ukrainian parents have staged protests demanding the reopening of kindergartens so they can go to work.

Tentatively, Ukrainian domestic and international flights can resume on June 15. But Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted that the resumption of international flights depends on other countries opening up as well.

“As for the operation of airports and the launch of scheduled flights, we will return to this issue, obviously, after June 15, when airlines can fly somewhere. So far, the airports of our partner countries are closed,” the prime minister said during a government meeting, according to Interfax-Ukraine news service.

However, according to the government’s “adaptive quarantine” plan, not all Ukrainian oblasts will be able to lift restrictions. The oblasts that do not meet the requirements in three criteria will not be allowed to enter stage two of easing the quarantine. This also applies to the decision to allow the metro and kindergartens to open on May 25.

The three criteria are the number of new cases per 100,000 people, occupancy of beds in hospitals treating patients with COVID-19 and the number of tests conducted over the past seven days.

To enter the second stage, the oblast should, over the past seven days, have less than 12 new cases per 100,000 people, the occupancy of hospital beds should be less than 50%, and the number of tests should be more than 12 per 100,000 people, Stepanov says.

On May 21, the government will consider which oblasts meet the three criteria to start the second stage of easing restrictions. As of May 18, eight oblasts — such as Chernivtsi, Volyn and Rivne oblasts — do not meet the criteria, according to Stepanov.

After stage two of easing the quarantine on May 22, Ukraine should enter stage three in 10 days – on June 1. The next stages will also start every 10 days – on June 10 and June 22, according to Stepanov. 

Ukraine started stage one of lifting the quarantine restrictions on May 11-12: The government allowed stores up to 300 square meters in area, summer terraces of cafes and restaurants, manufacturing enterprises and businesses offering services to reopen, provided they adhered to a set of safety measures. People were also allowed to visit parks, squares and other recreational areas.

The number of officially confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ukraine has reached 19,230 as of 9 a.m. on May 20, according to Ukraine’s health ministry. In total, 564 people have died from the disease in Ukraine and 5,955 patients have recovered.

In the 24 hours prior to the health ministry’s latest report, Ukraine identified 354 new COVID-19 cases. This daily number of reported cases has increased for the first time in three days, from 260 cases. As of the morning of May 20, 323 people had recovered and 16 people had died in the past 24 hours.

Globally, the novel coronavirus has infected over 5 million people as of  the afternoon of May 20. In total, 325,490 people have died and 1.97 million patients have recovered from COVID-19.