As Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko announced during his Ukraine-24 virtual appearance, due to a very serious epidemic situation in Kyiv, rising prevalence of the coronavirus disease and higher mortality rate, starting from April 5 Kyiv will tighten restrictions which will remain in place at least until April 16.

‘For several days in a row new coronavirus cases are in triple digits in Kyiv. Up to 40 fatalities and over 700 hospital admissions with either positive or suspected Covid-19 are reported every day. The latest data say that there are long queues of ambulances with Covid-19 patients outside the hospitals and overcrowded public transport. There is no improvement of the situation, but rather a tendency to collapse,’ said Klitschko. ‘The coronavirus situation leaves us no choice but to enforce tougher measures to reduce the spread of the virus starting from Monday, April 5. They include the closure of all schools and kindergartens and the reduced service of land public transportation and the Metro. Only workers of the essential public services with special permits should be eligible to use the municipal public transport,’ he added.

The city authority urges the employers to let their employees work remotely or give them leave. Restaurants and cafes will work only for takeout, as they should have since March 20. The street food markets will close from April 1.

Klitschko asked the law enforcement agencies to ensure compliance with the restriction order. ‘We will provide all details in the nearest time. I hope, our escalated response will help stabilise the situation and prevent the tragic consequences,’ said Kyiv mayor.

Also, he  informed that the hospital capacities in Kyiv are stretched thin and the city continues to add more coronavirus beds. 1,100 inpatient beds have been deployed by the municipality over the past few weeks bringing their total number to 6,169.

‘We have toughed up the restrictions but see the situation is  no better. Public healthcare is overloaded, with both infected Kyivans and medics. The staff in hospitals is exhausted. We must understand that no-one can ignore the threat to get infected and act as if the virus is a myth. The better we all comply the sooner we begin with our normal life. Please understand that we are trying to save you!’ asked Vitali Klitschko the Kyivans.

COVID-19 in Ukraine: Latest developments

Ukraine said 11,226 new active COVID-19 cases were confirmed across the country in the past 24 hours as of March 31, 2021.
The total number of confirmed cases grew to 1,674,168. As many as 1,313,481 patients have recovered. The death toll has hit 32,825.
The city of Kyiv was included in the red quarantine zone on March 23, 2021.
On March 29, 2021, First Deputy Chairman of Kyiv City State Administration Mykola Povoroznyk said Kyiv might suspend the work of primary schools, kindergartens and public transport over the critical situation with COVID-19.