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Among other measures, the draft bans mass events with more than 200 participants.

Photo from UNIAN

The ministry's press service says the draft provides for:

- Streamlined procurement of goods, works, and services to prevent and combat coronavirus, which will speed up the process of purchasing personal protective equipment and test systems;

- An opportunity for employees to work from home;

- A ban on holding mass events with more than 200 participants;

- A ban on control and supervision procedures during the implementation of measures related to preventing and fighting the coronavirus;

Read alsoUkraine reports first coronavirus death

- Strengthening border control; and

- A clear algorithm of forced isolation and self-isolation and liability for non-compliance with quarantine rules.

As reported earlier, the Ministry of Health has recommended all employers for the period of a national-wide quarantine to allow employees to work from home.

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Forced isolation and work from home: Ukraine's government drafts "coronavirus" bill - UNIAN

To stop the spread of COVID19, many countries, including Ukraine, have partly or entirely closed their borders, shuttered schools and banned mass gatherings.

The disease has killed 5,000 people globally while over 140,000 have been infected. And although there have been only three confirmed cases of the disease in Ukraine, theres a growing sense of alarm here too.

Meanwhile, detecting the infection is a key issue for the country, which has a population of 37 million people.

What are the symptoms of COVID19?

Being a respiratory infection, COVID19 often has flu-like symptoms: high temperature (higher than 37.6 degrees Celsius), fatigue, sore throat, shortness of breath and a dry cough. It can take two weeks after the person was infected for symptoms to show.

People with mild symptoms might recover within just a few days. More serious symptoms of COVID19 include trouble breathing, chest pain and nasal bleeding. This can lead to pneumonia, which can cause lung failure and death.

Ithink Ihave the symptoms. What should Ido?

After the first symptoms of possible COVID19 appear, a patient should call a family doctor, an ambulance (call the number 112), or the government hotline (call the number 1545).

Its best not to go to the doctor immediately to avoid infecting other people. After excluding flu and the common cold, a doctor will send the patient to get tested for the coronavirus. In Kyiv, seven hospitals carry such tests.

According to the health ministry, patients must be tested if they recently traveled to countries with serious outbreaks of the virus or had contact with a person who is suspected to have coronavirus.

How do they test for coronavirus?

There are two types of coronavirus tests available in Ukraine: a quick finger prick test and a more precise laboratory test. The reliability of the quick test ranges from 87% to 95%.

If the rapid test gives a positive result, the diagnosis will be checked again with the advanced test to confirm that the person has COVID19. For this, a swab is taken from the patients throat and sent to a laboratory.

Ive heard theres a shortage of tests in Ukraine. Is it true?

There is no shortage, but, for now, tests are available only in designated state hospitals. In Kyiv, there are seven such hospitals: three for adults, three for children and one maternity hospital.

Kyiv authorities have bought 3,500 tests for coronavirus detection. According to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, by the end of the week there will be 5,000 of those. As of March 11, only 43 Ukrainians were tested for coronavirus.

How long does it take to know the results?

The rapid test detects the virus antibodies and shows a result 10 minutes after the blood is taken.

The more advanced test takes, on average, 57 hours to give a result. There are only nine laboratories in Ukraine that test the samples sent by the hospitals.

How much does a test cost?

State hospitals test for coronavirus for free. But one must have a doctors recommendation to take the test.

CanI buy it somewhere and do the test for COVID19 by myself?

Although the Ministry of Health of Ukraine guarantees the accuracy of only those tests performed in public hospitals, some private laboratories already offer tests for coronavirus. In Eurolab medical center in Kyiv, rapid tests cost around $60 and deliver the result in 30 minutes. The test is performed using a persons venous blood.

At the same time, according to Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko, rapid tests may appear in Ukrainian drug stores soon as well. Their retail prices arent known yet. The state has been buying them for around $14.

IfI test positive, what should Ido?

Judging from the experience of other countries, it will depend on how bad the symptoms are.

After testing positive for coronavirus, a person may be either advised to self-quarantine at home or be put in a hospital for infectious diseases. Out of the three confirmed cases in Ukraine, one man was hospitalized, while two people were simply reported to be isolated.

According to the health ministry, every oblast in Ukraine has designated hospitals to treat coronavirus patients. These hospitals have been supplied with protective equipment.

Patients in severe condition may need medical ventilators. Ukraine has only 605 of those, according to the health ministry. By comparison, Italy has over 1,000 coronavirus patients on ventilation lung support.

Does the U.S. travel ban affect Ukraine? CanI still travel to the U.S. from Ukraine?

Yes, one can fly to the United States from Ukraine if the flight doesnt have a stopover in the Schengen Area countries.

The travel ban imposed by the White House to stop the spread of coronavirus in the U.S. starts on March 13 on midnight. For 30 days, the U.S. will not allow travelers from the Schengen Area which includes 26 European countries.

Ukraine isnt a part of the Schengen Area, but most flights to the U.S. make a connection in Europe. The options that remain are a direct flight from Kyiv to New York operated by Ukraine International Airlines or flights with stopovers in non-Schengen countries like the U.K. or Turkey.

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Excerpt from:
Everything you need to know about testing for coronavirus in Ukraine - Kyiv Post

Results of the analysis for coronavirus in the first patient in Ukraine on March 16 showed a negative result, Chernivtsi Regional State Administration (RSA) Deputy Head Natalia Husak said.

"Today we got a negative result, the first one from our patient number one, whose preliminary results were positive. That is, we can say that after two days this patient will also give samples, and if they are negative again, we can talk about recovery and discharge," she said.

Husak said some people who had contact with two patients who had previously been diagnosed with coronavirus were hospitalized, and some were self-isolating. All of them have been tested for the disease.

Husak emphasized that the age of patients with suspected coronavirus and patients with confirmed cases will not reported.

She said that there are 19 mechanical ventilation devices in the Regional Clinical Hospital of the Chernivtsi Region, two of which are awaiting repair. Also on Monday, the RSA sent a request to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the National Security and Defense Council for the provision of additional high-end piece ventilation units.

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First Ukrainian patient with COVID-19 from Chernivtsi recovers, may be discharged in couple of days regional administration - Interfax Ukraine

Fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko flew to Kyiv from abroad on the night of March 14-15. Strana.ua agency reported that. The former leader managed to return to the country before the border was closed due to the spread of Covid-19.

Journalists of the outlet met him near the Hall of official delegations in Boryspil airport.

As we reported before, Petro Poroshenkowho flew to Spain instead of appearing for interrogation at the State Bureau of Investigation, wants to urgently return to his homeland. Strana.ua news agency reports that citing the sources in the European Solidarity party.

According to journalists, the ex-president traveled to Spain for a detoxification treatment course in one of the clinics. And he had to stay there for at least another week.

"However, in connection with the closure of the flight, he is now considering the possibility of flying to Kyiv, interrupting the course ahead of schedule in order to be able to return before March 17," the media source reported.

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Poroshenko returned to Ukraine, - media - 112 International

Russian-backed separatists tried on Tuesday to break through the trench line in the stalemated war in eastern Ukraine, killing one government soldier and wounding four others, the Ukrainian military said.

In the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, the attack was seen more as a diplomatic feint than a military assault, an effort to gain leverage during talks to end the war. In response, Ukraines president, Volodymyr Zelensky, convened an emergency meeting of his national security council. The Kremlin denied any involvement.

After a phase of widespread violence in 2014 and 2015, the war settled into a dreary back-and-forth along a frontier consisting of about 270 miles of trenches.

Despite a negotiated cease-fire, skirmishes break out daily, most of them with long-distance artillery. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported nearly 300,000 cease-fire violations by both sides last year, counting every explosion or burst of gunfire its monitors hear along the front.

The attack on Tuesday, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, was unusual in that the separatists tried to overrun a Ukrainian trench line and seize additional territory. It was the first such attack in two years, the military said.

Mr. Zelensky called the action an attempt to disrupt the peace process but did not directly blame the Russian government.

Our course, our commitment to end the war and to international agreements remains unchanged, he wrote in a social media post. As does our determination to repel any manifestation of armed aggression against Ukraine.

In a conference call with journalists, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri S. Peskov expressed condolences for the dead but said that it would be wrong to say that the Kremlin is responsible for whatever happens there.

The fighting broke out in a remote area of farmland and villages carved by a network of trenches that has been a hot spot in the conflict for years.

The Ukrainian Army said it began with an artillery barrage near the village of Krymske, followed by the unsuccessful attempt to overrun its trenches, but the military provided no further details. The fighting killed one separatist soldier and wounded five others.

The attack, carried out just a few miles from a disengagement zone where Ukrainian troops had pulled back from the front, seemed to have been calculated to create political problems for Mr. Zelensky.

Creating these sites has been a signature policy of the Ukrainian president, who won an election last year promising to negotiate an end to the war. But the voluntary pullbacks have incensed his Ukrainian nationalist opposition at home.

The escalation near the disengagement zone in the town of Zolote was intended to force Zelensky into talks in an unfavorable position at home politically, said Yevhan Mahda, an analyst in Kyiv.

Unfortunately, the Kremlin feels the weakness of Ukraines leadership in its unwillingness to raise the stakes, Mr. Mahda said. Zelensky came to power on a program of peace, and the Kremlin understands this.

The fighting on Tuesday came three days after Mr. Zelenskys government rejected a 12-point plan to reduce tensions, a proposal promoted by former Russian, European and American government officials at a security conference in Munich.

That plan was seen as echoing pro-Russian positions, such as promoting a partial rollback of Western economic sanctions on Russia before a final peace deal and encouraging Ukraine to sign a trade deal with Russia.

It also suggested that Ukraine should engage in a national debate about themes of history and national memory, language and identity that would include Russian perspectives, something also sure to enrage the nationalist opposition.

Mr. Zelensky had been pressing for an end to Russian deployments of weapons and soldiers into Ukraine under a formula that would allow joint patrols by Ukraine, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and local citizens along the Russian-Ukrainian border. The Kremlin has rejected that idea.

The attack came on the fifth anniversary of a major escalation by Russian-backed separatists and regular Russian Army troops that forced Ukraine into the settlement plan known as the Minsk II agreement.

Maria Varenikova contributed reporting from Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

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To Make a Diplomatic Point, Ukraine Rebels Open Fire - The New York Times