Ukraine’s first COVID-19 patient recovers

Ukraine’s first patient diagnosed with COVID-19 has recovered from the disease that affected 252,000 and killed 10,400 in a global pandemic. His second consequent test for the novel coronavirus showed a negative result, so he will be released home from the hospital, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported on March 20.

“I congratulate him and our entire country. This is the most pleasant news in recent days. And it shows that we will be fine,” Zelensky said in a video address.

The patient, a man from Chernivtsi, a city some 510 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, was diagnosed with COVID-19 on March 3. For nearly a week, he remained the only COVID-19 patient in Ukraine, which now has seen 26 cases, and three deaths. At the time he was diagnosed, the man had recently returned with his wife from a vacation in Italy, the country that is now hit hardest by the virus with 41,000 people infected and 3,400 killed.

The man was hospitalized in Chernivtsi Oblast, and his wife was isolated at home. She did not test positive for coronavirus.

Since that first case, Chernivtsi Oblast has become an epicenter of the disease in Ukraine with 15 confirmed cases. One of these was lethal: a 33-year-old woman died, although local authorities reported that the reason could have been a different, “neurological pathology,” not coronavirus. The police have been investigating her death over possible malpractice.

Chernivtsi Oblast declared an emergency situation due to coronavirus on March 14, the first region to do so in Ukraine, followed by Zhytomyr and Kyiv oblasts. An emergency situation means that the authorities acknowledge the threats, create headquarters, monitor the situation and make plans to fight the virus.

As of March 20, there is a total of 26 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ukraine with three deaths. Besides Chernivtsi Oblast, there are three cases in Kyiv, two in each Kyiv, Dnipro and Zhytomyr oblasts, one in each Luhansk and Ivano-Frankivsk oblasts.