Ukraine has evacuated 45 nationals to protect them from the outbreak of deadly coronavirus in China, but their arrival in the country has sparked small protests.
About 200 locals previously clashed with police while blocking access to the sanatorium where the passengers will be isolated.
A local also said that “the vehicles will be allowed to pass if (Ukrainian President) Volodymyr Zelensky accommodates his own children near the sanatorium,” local news reported.
In the meantime, Ukraine’s interior minister, Arsen Avakov, assured the protesters that the settlement was safe, that only the evacuated would be in the building, and the food would be served “like in a pre-trial detention center,” he said.
A total of 14 staff members will take care of the isolated passengers. Everyone will be accommodated in individual rooms with an “appropriate level of comfort,” the Cabinet of Ministers wrote on its website.
The waste will be disposed of in a special way. It will not go in a common drain and the sewage drains will undergo disinfection on a compulsory basis, it added.
The passengers are now being sent to the 8,000-resident town of Novi Sanzhary in eastern Poltava Oblast, where they will be placed in quarantine.
First, the plane arrived in Kyiv to refuel, then in Kharkiv, and now the authorities have put the passengers on a bus to Novi Sanzhary, 345 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, where the quarantine will take place, Ukraine’s interior minister wrote on Facebook.
A passenger plane, chartered by the government from the low-cost carrier SkyUp, returned from Wuhan and landed in the eastern city of Kharkiv early on Feb. 20.
In total, the flight from Wuhan has brought 72 passengers to Ukraine; 27 of them are foreigners.
The government has prepared four centers in different cities of Ukraine to keep the evacuees isolated. It is unknown, however, if the foreigners will stay in Ukraine or be sent to their countries.
All the evacuees are so far considered healthy, having first been tested for the virus in Wuhan, and again in Kyiv, Deputy Health Minister Dmitry Koval reportedly said in a press briefing on Feb. 20.
Meanwhile, some residents of Novi Sanzhary, where the first quarantine site is located, have held protests and clashed with the police as they tried to block roads and prevent the arrival of evacuees. One protester has been arrested so far, Ukrainian media reported.
Another protest reportedly took place in the town of Mykulyntsi, Ternopil Oblast, located 435 kilometers west of Kyiv as the authorities scrambled to find a locality that would accept evacuees. No planned relocation of passengers to Mykulyntsi has been confirmed.
President Zelensky condemned the protests on Facebook, warning about the “danger of forgetting that we are all human and that we are all Ukrainians.”
“Attempts to block routes, block hospitals, not letting Ukrainian citizens return to Ukraine – it doesn’t show the best side of our character,” Zelensky said.
Seven buses have been used in Ukraine, and 33 first responders took part in transporting the evacuees that arrived from China, the State Emergency Situations Service reported.
On the flight, SkyUp crew were provided with special protective suits and masks, and a specially equipped area was prepared for passengers on the charter plane that took off last night, on Feb. 19.
Evacuated Ukrainians, as well as aircraft crew, doctors, first responders, customs officers and border guards who accompanied the evacuees will be put in quarantine for 14 days as well. Their clothes will all be burned.
The plane used to transport the evacuees and crew is already undergoing disinfection. The air conditioning filters will be replaced, and it will be ready to fly a few days after the procedure is over.
So far, there have been over 75,200 confirmed cases of people new coronavirus infections and 2,006 people have died in China. Three fatalities have been recorded outside China.
