17:23 01.10.2020

More than 4,000 COVID-19 cases registered per day due to local election campaign in Ukraine – Zelensky

3 min read
More than 4,000 COVID-19 cases registered per day due to local election campaign in Ukraine – Zelensky

 President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky believes that the situation with the incidence of coronavirus in Ukraine has worsened due to the election campaign in local elections and the not always responsible attitude of citizens to compliance with the necessary measures.

"This is every person's matter [wearing masks and observing the necessary measures] until it becomes a global big problem for every hospital. And I understand the fatigue of people, but we all just have to understand that this is not only our life, but also of people who suffer near you, your relatives, friends, especially people of retirement age, elderly people," he said at a briefing in Rivne region on Thursday.

Zelensky pointed out that people get tired of wearing masks, but one need to understand the severity of the danger.

"We had strict quarantine measures, which led, as in the whole world, to difficulties in the economy of Ukraine and in every family. But strict quarantine measures completely brought down the first wave. We were [in terms of the number of cases] per capita almost the best in Europe. We were able to understand this, to start earlier than others. We were also lucky that in Europe it started earlier, so we understood the consequences from what we saw and were able to stop it," he said.

The President stressed that then the election campaign in local elections began, which negatively affected the situation with COVID-19.

"Now we see sociological statistics, what influence causes all this political euphoria, this political circus of local authorities ... How difficult it is for them to lose their power, or not to lose. I do not understand why they do this, except for their ratings. They want to please all people, who live in this or that settlement. But, you know, we see more than 4,000 [COVID-19 cases per day in Ukraine], that's all. These are the games that increased the number of cases by more than a thousand percent," he declared.

The head of state noted that the increase in incidence is taking place throughout Europe, but somewhere the situation has already stabilized. "Now many of the local politicians say that it is the same in Europe. Not the same. Let's compare. We had better situation. Why do we take cues from where it is worse - in Europe? And why don't we follow Europe, the world's cues when it is better than in Ukraine?" he added.

Zelensky also drew attention to the fact that a large number of doctors are currently ill in Ukraine, what is more in hospitals that do not deal with COVID-19 patients: "That is, the consequences are not only from the number of COVID-19 patients, because of political games. Who now do not perform operations, other doctors? And the number of surgeons who do not perform operations now, other doctors? What is the number of people who have other diseases? When people are admitted to hospitals with strokes, heart attacks, and there are no doctors. They get sick, 200-300 doctors every day."

The president again called on all citizens to protect themselves from infection.

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