Not all Ukrainian regions need tough COVID-19 curbs – Health ministry

Some regions see the situation getting better.

Ukrainian Deputy Health Minister and Chief Medical Officer Viktor Liashko has said not all Ukrainian regions need the introduction of a tough quarantine over COVID-19.

Speaking in an interview to the Hromadske media outlet, he said Ivano-Frankivsk and Zakarpattia regions had introduced the tough restrictions much earlier, which helped them stabilize the situation.

Read alsoCOVID-19: Over 11,200 new cases reported as of March 31, daily deaths hit new highThere are also improvements in Chernivtsi region, while Zhytomyr region has seen an increase in the number of patients with the introduction of the tough quarantine. Therefore, the ministry has sent a team to the region to analyze the situation. The statistics are also improving in the capital city of Kyiv.

"There's no need for Ivano-Frankivsk region [to introduce the tough quarantine], because they did it earlier. The situation in Zakarpattia region is the same," Liashko said.

Kherson, Kirovohrad, and Cherkasy regions also do not need the tough quarantine yet, he said.

"If the quarantine curbs are observed, if they don't do what is happening on commuter trains now, for example, on public transport in Kyiv, this should also produce the result. If they neglect, the healthcare system will eventually fail. A lockdown is not to be introduced as there is an adaptive quarantine in effect," he added.

Earlier, Liashko explained there was no need for the lockdown in Ukraine yet, since the healthcare system has been coping with the number of COVID-19 patients. Even with an increase of up to 24,000 patients per day, the hospitals will be able to handle them.

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