Ukrainian PM, mayors to discuss weekend lockdown on Nov 19

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal intends to hold a virtual meeting with the mayors of Ukrainian cities on Thursday, November 19, to discuss the weekend lockdown.

He said this from the parliament's rostrum on Tuesday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"We will have such a conversation [about the weekend lockdown] on Thursday," he said.

Shmyhal reiterated that the main task of the weekend lockdown was to hit a plateau of no more than 11,000-12,000 new cases a day.

A virtual meeting with mayors, chaired by Shmyhal, was also held on Monday, November 16. The meeting was attended by Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov, Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor Viktor Liashko, Ukrainian epidemiologists, and infectious diseases specialists. Shmyhal said at the meeting that the Cabinet of Ministers was looking for ways to slow down the growth in the number of COVID-19 patients.

Earlier reports said that a number of cities in Ukraine had refused to tighten quarantine measures during the weekend of November 14-15. In particular, the mayors of Lviv, Odesa, Cherkasy, Sloviansk and Kramatorsk said that such a weekend lockdown was ineffective and would have significant consequences for the city budget.

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