Ukraine will close its borders for foreign citizens for two weeks to prevent the spread of coronavirus on March 15, 48 hours after the National Security Council announced the measure at 3 p.m. on March 13. The ban will last until March 29.
“Only the persons working in our diplomatic institutions, organizations like UN, UNICEF, etc. will be allowed to enter Ukraine. The rest will only enter our territory after talking with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” the council’s secretary Oleksiy Danilov said.
Foreigners with temporary or permanent residency permits will be exempt from the ban, Infrastructure Minister Vladyslav Kryklii reported on Facebook.
Kriklii also said that the ban will not apply to international freight operations. But Kyiv immigration lawyer Vasyl Cherednichenko says it will probably still apply to foreign truck drivers importing the goods even if the “cargo is not affected.”
All Ukrainians will be able to return to Ukraine during this period, but those returning from the countries where coronavirus is “raging” will have to undergo observation, Danilov said.
The council also asked Ukrainian citizens to limit foreign travel.
Ukraine has only three confirmed cases of COVID-19, a disease that has infected 138,941 and killed 5,111 worldwide in a global pandemic.
Within a week all medical institutions and Ukraine’s 49 remaining border checkpoints will be supplied with rapid test kits, Danilov said. These checkpoints already conduct medical screenings and will have mobile quarantine centers.
Ukrainian producers of personal protection equipment that were present at the council’s meeting pledged to provide the public with such items as masks and sanitizers, Ukraine’s chief sanitary doctor Viktor Lyashko said.
The council ruled that goods and services used to counter coronavirus infection will be exempt from the law on public procurement, making it easier and faster for state hospitals to buy masks and other personal protection equipment.
The measures come after Ukraine on March 12 closed educational institutions and banned mass events of more than 200 people, except events of “state necessity,” such as parliamentary meetings, and sporting events with no spectators.
Ukraine had already imposed limits on flights to and from Italy on March 11. It closed 170 out of 219 border checkpoints, including to Russian-occupied parts of the Donbas. Ukraine imposed limits on flights to and from Iran and China in January.
Ukraine has one of the smallest numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Europe. A man returning to Chernivtsi from Italy was the first reported case on March 2. Two more cases were reported on March 12: another man in Chernivtsi Oblast whose wife has been in Italy for the last 14 days and an elderly woman who returned from Poland. The elderly woman subsequently died from her illness on March 13.
CORONAVIRUS IN UKRAINE: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- There have been five confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ukraine. The first case was identified in Ukraine on March 3.
- One person died from the COVID-19 in Ukraine.
- Ukraine shut schools and canceled mass events starting March 12 to prevent the disease’s spread. Some schools resisted.
- Here’s how Kyiv is affected.
- Doctor’s advice: How to stay safe.
- Ukrainians evacuated from the disease’s epicenter in Wuhan, China spent two weeks in quarantine in a sanatorium in Poltava Oblast and were released on March 5. Their arrival in Ukraine caused unrest.
Effects on economy:
- Here’s what the virus is doing to Ukraine’s economy.
- Ukrainian businesses respond to the crisis.
- The virus disrupts the transport sector. Ukrainian airlines canceled some flights to 16 countries due to the novel coronavirus.
The National Bank of Ukraine continued to cut the policy rate while trying to buffer the hryvnia from coronavirus panic.
