Regions struggle with COVID-19, medical workers and priests infected

Ukraine’s regions are reporting growing numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, with many of them among medical workers tasked with caring for those who have already contracted the novel coronavirus and clergymen who have defied government orders to stay home.

On April 13, the Ministry of Health reported that 530 medical workers had been diagnosed with COVID-19. In total, Ukraine has 3,102 registered cases. 

Out of the 325 new cases that Ukraine registered on April 12, there were 85 medical workers and 63 priests and clergymen. 

Some regions were hit particularly badly. 

In Vinnytsia Oblast’s rural Kalynivsky District, home to under 60,000 people living around 200 kilometers to the southwest of Kyiv, 34 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on April 12. Twenty-six of them were medical workers who came into contact with infected patients, according to the district administration.

The situation is increasingly dire for the region. As of April 12, Vinnytsia Oblast had 173 confirmed cases, according to Governor Vladyslav Skalsky. They included 64 medical workers — over a third of the oblast’s registered COVID-19 cases. 

Since then, the total number of cases in the oblast has grown to 194, according to the health ministry.

Meanwhile, in Kyiv, the virus has hit local clergy particularly hard.

Out of the 495 cases confirmed in Kyiv as of early April 13, nearly 20 percent, or 90 cases, are among the people working or living at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a monastery run by the Ukrainian Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. Two inhabitants of the monastery died and three were hospitalized as of April 13.

Among those hospitalized was the Lavra’s leader, Metropolitan Pavlo. The monastery wouldn’t confirm whether he had COVID-19, but he was taken to the same infection hospital that treats most of the coronavirus cases in Kyiv. 

Previously, Metropolitan Pavlo urged believers to defy government restrictions and keep coming to the church. 

“It’s not the pandemic that’s scary, it’s sins that corrupt the soul,” Pavlo said on March 20. 

The rapid spread of COVID-19 among medical workers and clergy points at the challenges of battling the novel coronavirus and imposing quarantine measures in Ukraine. 

Regional struggles

The difficulties faced by Ukraine’s regions, where medical infrastructure is often underdeveloped and poorly funded, are hardly surprising.

In late March, workers from the Monastyrsky District Hospital in western Ukraine made a plea to President Volodymyr Zelensky for protective gear, as the number of infected doctors and nurses in the area reached 32 people.

Read More: Town in Ternopil Oblast reports the highest number of infected doctors

“The hospital didn’t have anything, not even disposable shoe covers,” said Mariya Krainyak, a volunteer who has been helping to collect money and order supplies for the hospital. “I don’t want to make an assessment of the authorities’ actions, but what needs to be done isn’t being done.”

Ternopil Oblast, where the Monastyrysky District Hospital is located, has 273 confirmed COVID-19 cases, as of April 13.

Its problems aren’t unique. Hospitals across the country were poorly supplied with necessary protective equipment when the outbreak of COVID-19 began in Ukraine in early March.

On April 11, Kirovograd Oblast in central Ukraine also reported mass infections among hospital employees. Governor Andriy Balon announced that 42 medical workers had tested positive for COVID-19 out of a total of 106 cases in the oblast.

In Lviv Oblast, local authorities reported on April 13 that 11 medical workers had contracted the coronavirus, out of the 124 total registered cases. Additionally, 18 patients with COVID-19 in the oblast are currently on lung ventilators and are considered to be in a critical condition.

Across Ukraine, a total of 57 COVID-19 patients were on lung ventilators as of April 13, according to Health Minister Maksym Stepanov.

Unholy example

While medical workers are risking their lives to save others, priests at the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra have been risking their lives and those of their parishioners.

Kyiv currently has registered 495 cases of COVID-19, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported on April 13. Among them are 90 patients from the Lavra complex.

According to Klitschko, out of the 79 newly registered cases on April 12, 63 were diagnosed among the priests of the Lavra. Archimandrite Nectarius, who was 73 years old and held services at the Lavra complex, died of coronavirus on April 12. 

Later the same day, Hierodeacon Naum, 47, became the second Lavra priest to die from coronavirus. 

Prior, on April 6, a priest from Ternopil Oblast died of COVID-19. He was the first registered patient in the region and held services after being infected by the virus, but before being officially diagnosed.

The government’s emergency situation committee has now ordered the Lavra to close for quarantine, Mayor Klitschko said. A group of medical workers equipped with mobile polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were sent to test all clergymen and employees of the monastery for COVID-19, Klitschko said.

The Kyiv authorities are now attempting to track down those who attended religious services there during the past 14 days.

The drastic surge in infections at the Lavra is the result of religious leaders defying government orders. The first half of April is packed with religious holidays, according to the Eastern Orthodox religious calendar. Among them are Annunciation, celebrated on April 7, and Easter, celebrated on April 19.

Since March 12, the Ukrainian government has imposed and gradually intensified quarantine measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Currently, all schools, parks, restaurants and non-essential shops and enterprises are closed. The government has also closed the country’s borders and told the public to remain at home. 

On April 6, the government further intensified quarantine measures, banning people from visiting public places without facemasks and venturing outside of their homes in groups of more than two.

However, the Moscow-led Orthodox church continued holding religious services. On April 10, one of the church’s hierarchs, Metropolitan Klyment said that all churches would hold an Easter Vigil, including Lavra’s churches, but will do so outdoors. By then, 30 inhabitants of Lavra had already been diagnosed with COVID-19. After the surge of cases on April 12, Klitschko said that Lavra will have to close down for quarantine. 

The Moscow Patriarchate’s approach drastically differs from that of other Ukrainian religious institutions. Other churches have largely urged people to stay home and planned to hold religious services online.