Ministry of Health against abolishing or postponing lockdown
The Ministry of Health is against postponing or abolishing the quarantine.
Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov stated at a briefing.
"The Ministry of Health is against moving quarantine, against its abolition. I want to remind you we've recorded about 5, 6, almost 7 thousand cases of COVID-19 during the holidays. Up to 200 people die from this disease every day. Currently, over 23,000 people are in hospitals and need medical care in hospitals. Over 10% are seriously ill. In general, the number of seriously ill is increasing," Stepanov said.
He recalled that the fact of introducing strict quarantine restrictions from 8 to 25 January was announced in advance. Besides, according to him, according to epidemiologists, after the New Year, the world expects to see an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.
Stepanov added that also when the lockdown was introduced, there was a seasonal increase in influenza incidence.
"We expect a peak influenza incidence in mid-February. COVID-19 and influenza are two infectious diseases that often give the same complications, often require oxygen therapy, people have pneumonia because of this disease, so we need to unload (medical system – ed.) as much as possible. Moreover, we don't want to receive 17-20-25 thousand (patients per day – ed.) Again, we believe that we really need a strict quarantine from January 8 to 24 to bring down this wave as much as possible," Stepanov said.
