Prime Minister of Ukraine Denis Shmyhal has announced that a lockdown will be introduced in Ukraine from 8 January to 24 January 2021, inclusive.
He made the announcement after a government meeting, the CFTS portal reports, citing the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
"We will make decisions on additional restrictions for next year today... It was decided that the quarantine restrictions in Ukraine will be tightened from 8 to 24 January, inclusive. Let us call them ‘winter holidays for the sake of safety,’" he said at a government meeting on 9 December.
According to him, cafes, restaurants, bars (excluding delivery and takeaway orders), non-food stores, cinemas, fitness clubs, gyms, theaters, and shopping malls (excluding the sale of food, medicines, veterinary medicines, personal hygiene goods, and household chemicals) will be closed. In addition, all educational institutions except kindergartens will be closed for vacation and all entertainment, advertising, sports, and cultural events will be banned during this period.
However, according to the prime minister, public transport will continue to operate. "Grocery stores, pharmacies, banks, postal operators, and hotels will continue to operate," Shmyhal said.
Earlier, the prime minister emphasized that the government was not planning to suspend transport operations in Ukraine even during a lockdown.
"Public transport will not stop operating during the additional quarantine restrictions in January 2021. “Vehicles, including fixed-route taxis, trolleybuses, trams, and railways, will carry passengers in numbers corresponding to their numbers of seats. This applies to urban, suburban, intercity, intraregional, and interregional transport,” Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Kryklyi said, commenting on the Cabinet of Ministers’ decision. “There will be no restrictions on domestic flights. When flying abroad, familiarize yourselves with the conditions of entry/exit established for Ukrainian citizens in the country to which you are traveling. The subway will transport passengers without restrictions, but the number of passengers will be limited to the number of seats. Postal operators will operate as usual, without any changes".
