Now much in the development of the situation depends on every Ukrainian citizen. In order to preserve health of each particular person and prevent the mass spread of COVID-19 infectious disease throughout the country, everyone must comply with quarantine rules and use preventive measures. Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine Viktor Liashko said at a briefing on March 27.

The official reported that according to the Public Health Center, as of 10:00 a.m. on March 27, there were 218 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Ukraine, of which 5 - fatal and 4 - recovered. During 24 hours, 62 new cases have been confirmed.

According to Viktor Liashko, the analysis by age groups demonstrated that the largest amount of people with confirmed coronavirus (almost 38%) are those aged 30-49, 17% of patients – those aged 18-29, 30%- those aged 50-65, aged 65+ - 6%.

“This indicates that the eldest age group abides by the advice of the Ministry of Health and the Government, performs quarantine measures and limits mobility. People between the ages of 18 and 49 are still scornful of the threat,” said the Deputy Minister.

Meanwhile, Viktor Liashko stressed that restrictions on mobility and contact, as well as self-isolation, are the only preventative measures for today that will help to preserve both people’s life and health and help the healthcare system. "We must follow the recommendations to prevent the mass spread of infection in Ukraine," Viktor Liashko said.

He reminded that on March 25, the Government had appointed him the lead in activities to address the effects of the state-level biomedical emergency through the spread of COVID-19. On March 26, a central headquarters was set up, the first meetings were held and the same headquarters were commissioned to set up in the regions.

“All other headquarters that have existed to date must be liquidated or integrated into the aforesaid headquarters to address the effects of a state-level biomedical emergency. There will now be in effect single management vertical for localization of emergency response with regard to coronavirus disease,” the Deputy Minister stressed.

Moreover, according to him, there would be set up in all the regions mobile teams consisting of a driver and medical professionals who shall visit citizens suspected of having a coronavirus infection to collect samples for research at a virology laboratory. Such teams will be arriving after calls from a family doctor, emergency medical services specialists, and medical staff. Viktor Liashko said that in the near future all contact phone numbers will be announced as well as an algorithm on how all that will work. At that, he noted that hospitalization would be held for patients with severe and moderate symptoms.

Backgound

• Confirmed cases of coronavirus were recorded in the following regions: Vinnytsia region - 5 cases; Volyn region - 2; Dnipropetrovsk region - 3; Donetsk region - 2; Zaporizhzhya region - 8; Zakarpattia region - 1; Zhytomyr region - 2 (1 lethal); Ivano-Frankivsk region - 24 (2 lethtal); Kyiv city - 47; Kyiv region - 32; Lviv region - 3; Luhansk region - 1; Odessa region - 4; Rivne region - 9; Ternopil region - 25 (1 lethal); Kherson region - 1; Chernivtsi region - 47 (1 lethal); Cherkasy region - 2.