COVID-19 pandemic in Ukraine

On 27 January 2020, SkyUp, a Ukrainian low-cost charter airline, announced that it had suspended flights to Sanya, Hainan, until March.[12][13]

On 4 February, Ukraine International Airlines suspended its charter service to Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Hainan. Initially, the suspension was set to last until 24 February,[12] however the airline has not yet indicated when it will resume flights.[14]

On 24 February, Boryspil International Airport and Kyiv International Airport were supposed to implement thermal screening procedures for travellers from Italy, but airport staff were either underequipped (with thermal cameras) or ignored the protocol.[15][16]

On 3 March, Ukraine announced its first confirmed SARS-CoV-2 case, a man who had travelled from Italy to Romania by plane and then arrived in Ukraine by car.[4]

On 12 March, two more SARS-CoV-2 cases were confirmed in Ukraine.[17] The diagnosis was confirmed for a man in the Chernivtsi Oblast, whose wife had recently returned from Italy, and for a 71-year-old woman in the Zhytomyr Oblast, who had returned from Poland on 1 March. The woman, from Radomyshl, in the Zhytomyr Oblast, died on 13 March, becoming the first fatal case in the country.[18]

Wearing a face mask in public places was made obligatory in Ukraine on April 6.

On 16 March, two new cases were confirmed in the Chernivtsi Oblast,[19] and two others in Kyiv. In Kyiv, one of the persons concerned was a student who had contacted the infected woman in the Zhytomyr Oblast, while the other was a woman who had returned from France.[20]

On 17 March, six more cases were confirmed in the Chernivtsi Oblast,[21] all of them had contacted the previously known case, including a 33-year-old woman who died. The first cases of children being infected were reported. One case was confirmed in the Kyiv Oblast, a man who had recently come from abroad,[21] who was later confirmed to be a People's Deputy of Ukraine.[22]

On 18 March, member of the Ukrainian parliament Serhii Shakhov stated that he was SARS-CoV-2 positive after denying it earlier in the day. Kyiv Post counted Shakhov as being among the total of 14 people in Ukraine with laboratory confirmations of being SARS-CoV-2 positive.[23]

Later that day, two new cases were announced: the second one for the Kyiv Oblast (the wife of the man earlier reported) and the first one for the Donetsk Oblast (a 52-year-old man who had visited Egypt).[24][25]

On 19 March, the third case was confirmed in Kyiv (a person who had travelled from Switzerland),[26] and the second in the Zhytomyr Oblast (a 56-year-old man from Zhytomyr who had returned from Austria).[27] The same day, the first cases were reported in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, also five new cases were reported in the Chernivtsi Oblast, thereby increasing the total number of infected in Ukraine to 26.[28]

On 20 March, the first case of recovery from COVID-19 was reported for a man in Chernivtsi who was the first infected person in the country.[29] On the same day, 15 new positive COVID-19 tests were confirmed across Ukraine: 10 in Chernivtsi Oblast, and one in each of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Ternopil, and Kyiv, raising the national total to 41 cases.[30] The case from the Kharkiv Oblast was a woman who had been diagnosed in Kyiv, and was being treated in Kyiv, and on 21 March was transferred from the statistics for Kharkiv to those for Kyiv.[31]

On 21 March, according to the Ministry of Health, the total confirmed cases in Ukraine was 47.[32][33][34] There were either six[33] or seven new cases confirmed in Kyiv bringing the total to ten (of these eight had caught the disease abroad).[35] In the Donetsk Oblast, the first case of coronavirus was recorded and an emergency was declared in the oblast.[36] The first patient was confirmed in Lutsk,[34] and in disputed Crimea.[37] There were 417 people suspected of having coronavirus in Crimea and Sevastopol at the end of 21 March.[37]

As of 10:00 on 23 March, there were 73 confirmed cases in Ukraine. During the previous 24 hours, 26 new cases were confirmed.[38]

As of 10:00 on 24 March, 11 new cases had been confirmed in Ukraine during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 84 confirmed cases.[39] This was later raised to 97 confirmed cases.[40] The head of the Chernivtsi Oblast state administration, Serhiy Osachuk, said that 13 new cases of the disease had been confirmed in Chernivtsi Oblast. There were 38 infected people in the Ukrainian part of Bukovina.[40]

At 10:00 on 25 March, the Ministry of Health stated that 29 new cases had been confirmed in Ukraine during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 113 confirmed cases.[41] These included the first case in the Volyn Oblast, the first two cases in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, two more cases in Kyiv, seven more in the Kyiv Oblast, the first case in the Luhansk Oblast, the first case in the Odessa Oblast, two more cases in the Ternopil Oblast, and 13 new cases in the Chernivtsi Oblast that had been reported in the media the previous day.[41] One person in the Ternopil Oblast died of the disease.[41]

On 25 March, the Government introduced a 30-day emergency regime across Ukraine that was scheduled planned to end on 24 April.[42][43]

At 10:00 on 26 March, the Ministry of Health stated that 43 new cases had been confirmed in Ukraine during the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 156 confirmed cases.[44] One person in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast died of the disease.[44] By the end of 26 March, there were five confirmed cases in Sevastopol, and nine in the rest of Crimea; over 3,000 people were suspected of having the disease, and nearly 90 were isolated in hospitals in Crimea (including Sevastopol).[45]

At 10:00 on 27 March, the Ministry announced that 62 more cases had been confirmed in Ukraine in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 218 confirmed cases.[46] Three more patients from Chernivtsi had recovered from the disease. This brought up to four the number of recovered people: three adults and a child. Repeated laboratory tests showed no trace of the virus, and another polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test had shown a negative reaction twice in a row.[47]

At 10:00 on 28 March, the Ministry announced that 93 more cases had been confirmed in Ukraine in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total to 311 confirmed cases.[42] Three more people had died, bringing the total to eight.[42] Another person had recovered, bringing the total to five (four adults and one child).[42] There were reported cases in all parts of Ukraine, except the Kirovohrad Oblast.[42]

At 10:00 on 29 March, the Ministry announced that 109 new cases had been confirmed, bringing the total to 418.[48] There had been 248 new reports of suspicion of the disease, bringing the total to 1966 since the start of the year.[48] Four cases had been confirmed in the Kirovohrad Oblast.[48] The two cases (one per the Dnipropetrovsk and Mykolaiv Oblasts) shown in the statistics for 28 March had been moved to the statistics for Kyiv.[49]

Since 6 April, wearing a face mask is required by the government in public places. In Kyiv, public places were clarified to include parks and streets.[50]

On 21 April, it was reported that the Ministry planned to request an extension of the quarantine until May 12, albeit with some exceptions, such as opening libraries and museums.[51] A day later, the government extended the quarantine measures until May 11; all measures remained in place, with the exception of granting access to public transport to potential blood donors.[52]

On 4 May, the Ukrainian government extended the quarantine until 22 May.[53]

A number of restrictions were lifted on 11 May.[53] These included the re-opening of parks, squares, recreation areas, beauty salons, hairdressers and barber shops, cafes and restaurants with outdoor tables. The second stage of easing the quarantine is currently scheduled for 22 May,[54] which envisages the reopening of nurseries, public transport, and hotels, and allowing sports competitions to be held.

On 25 May, the metro systems in Kyiv and Kharkiv were reopened.[55]

On 1 June, railway connections between a number of Ukrainian cities were re-opened.[56]

Domestic flights resumed on 5 June, along with the reopening of restaurants, cafes and religious establishments.[57]

International flights resumed on 15 June, but as of this date, Ukrainians could only travel to Albania, Belarus, the UK, US, and Turkey.[58][59]

After the government eased restrictions, cases began to surge in August. The government passed some stricter measures, such as closing the country's borders. In mid-September, over 1,000 Orthodox Jewish pilgrims attempting to enter the country from Belarus were blocked from entering Ukraine.[60]

Cases began to rise sharply from July which began to top 10,000 cases a day by November.[61]

On 9 November, Ukraine's president, Volodymr Zelensky announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.[62] He was admitted to hospital three days later.[63] His spokeswoman said that he did this so that he could "accurately isolate and not expose anyone" although he said that there was "nothing serious" about his condition.[64]

On 11 November, the government approved weekend lockdowns were non-essential businesses would close for the weekend for three weeks starting from 14 November.

On 23 December, Ukraine surpassed 1 million COVID-19 cases.

On January 8, Ukraine introduced a new lockdown in an effort to curb high daily infection numbers. Ukraine lifted most of these lockdown restrictions, roughly three weeks later, on January 25. The lockdown was largely successful, with Ukraine's Health Minister stating "Such statistics, which indicate the stabilisation of the situation, the improvement of the situation could be obtained only thanks to you, Ukrainians."[65]

An antibody study done by Synevo laboratories showed that in January 2021 already 44% to 60% of all Ukrainians depending on region were infected compared to 33% in October 2020 and 9% in July 2020. Since December the number of daily new cases and daily deaths is decreasing.[66]