Stepanov: no ban on e-commerce during the lockdown

"I think that it was possible to prepare for 16 days of quarantine. It was possible to calculate exactly how many new socks or T-shirts a person needs. Even if you didn't have time to buy socks or T-shirts, you can easily do it with the help of online stores, because no one has canceled the address delivery, e-commerce," Stepanov said.

Minister reminded that the government's decision to impose strict quarantine was adopted on December 9, 2020, and the restrictions on trade were announced in advance.

According to him, decisions on quarantine restrictions are made taking into account the forecasts of epidemiologists.

According to Stepanov, introducing strict quarantine restrictions happened because, during the holidays, there was a threat of increasing the COVID-19 incidence because of the large number of contacts between people who rarely intersect.

Also, the Minister said, starting from the third week of the year, there was an annual seasonal increase in the incidence of influenza and SARS, and the quarantine restrictions should affect the spread of influenza and SARS.

Stepanov reminded that people also criticized the weekend quarantine. However, according to the Minister, after it, the situation with the disease stabilized in Ukraine; the number of infected and hospitalized decreased.