Today at 19:01
In 2020, Ukraine, together with the rest of the world, will begin to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The evacuation of Ukrainians to Novi Sanzhary was especially memorable. In general, this year everyone learned what quarantine, lockdown, “remote job” are, and learned to take care of themselves and their loved ones.
We tell about it in the new issue of the documentary series “30 years of Independence” on the UA TV channel.
On January 8, a Boeing of Ukraine International Airlines takes off from Tehran for Kyiv. But in the third minute of the flight the plane falls. The death toll is 167 passengers – most of them Canadians of Iranian descent returning home after the New Year holidays. Nine crew members are Ukrainians.
Three days later, Iran, which initially denied this, confirmed that the plane had not crashed on its own. It was shot down by two Iranian missiles, considered an enemy target.
The “golden” crew is met in the homeland to spend the last journey.
Iran promises USD 150,000 in compensation to families. But negotiations on it will continue in a year and a half.
It soon became known that a strange virus had been raging in the Chinese city of Wuhan for a month, causing complications in the lungs. It is rumored that it started from the local market – they sell animals for exotic cuisine, such as bats. Local doctor Li Wenliang was the first to report the virus to the world. Soon he will die, catching a virus at work. The world media learn about what is happening in closed Chinese cities from compatriots. And Ukrainians, it turns out, are even in Wuhan, which few in the country have ever heard of. Like other residents of the quarantined city, they must stay at home and lose their jobs at the moment. Ukraine is preparing to evacuate its citizens from China.
Soon there will be a dramatic moment that will glorify the town of Novi Sanzhary in Poltava region around the world. When a convoy of buses with evacuees enters the village, they are stoned. And outside there was a real fight with the police.
“We had three children in buses, children were placed on the floor between the seats to protect them from stones, women were pushed away from the windows and the windows were curtained so that if a stone flew in, it could not get into the cabin” – said journalist Oleksandr Makhov.
20 protesters were detained.
The evacuees will spend two weeks in observation, during which everyone will calm down a bit.
“Some pictures of support, letters came, people wrote these letters by hand” – Makhov recalls.
Moreover, there will be no patients among the evacuees.
Following most EU countries, Ukraine decides to close its borders. Those interested are invited to return to the country in a week – until March 17. Then the date will be moved – so many want to return. Ukrainian “workers” are losing their jobs en masse.
The virus comes to Ukraine not from the east, but from the west – from a tourist trip to Italy. Officially, the first patient – Oleksandr from Chernivtsi – returned with his wife from a trip.
The first victim of the virus is a 70-year-old resident of Radomyshl who did not adhere to self-isolation.
In the first weeks of the epidemic from pharmacies disappear before anyone needs masks. Not only them are deficit. The WHO recommends having gloves for going outside, a disinfectant to spray everything, and buying a pulse oximeter for home, which shows the level of oxygen in the blood. And the enterprises – to have remote thermometers. Try to find all this in the spring of 2020.
What was previously shown in foreign news becomes a reality for Ukraine in mid-March: quarantine, also known as lockdown, ie everything optional is closed, intercity transport and the subway are stopped, outlets and cafes are closed.
But the effect of “empty streets”, as in Europe, cannot be achieved.
In Ukraine, fine for violating quarantine starts UAH 17,000. But in most cases it will be limited to protocols – for the year of the epidemic3,282 people will actually pay.
Every fifth patient in Ukraine is a health worker. 796 of them will die in the year of the epidemic in Ukraine.
In the quarantine of 2020, Ukrainians are learning the word “zoom”. A popular video conferencing program is suddenly needed even by those who have never heard of it before. Work, study, even parties – go there. Ukrainian stars, following the example of the world, are starting to give online concerts.
For those who can’t work online, it’s the hardest. Hairdressers and restaurants are trying to figure out how to work when they can’t work as usual.
“You tell boys and girls that they’re all going on unpaid leave, and you know how it is in business, you don’t know what you have tomorrow” – says restaurateur Viola Kim.
During the spring quarantine, the turnover of restaurants falls by more than 80%.
“If I had been told 5 years ago that you could make money in an online restaurant, I would have laughed. For these 2 months, we did not fail, we worked to zero, but we paid all the debts to suppliers” – said Kim.
If before the coronavirus in the country employs 18,600 people, in a year there will be 14,700. The market will shrink by 30%.
Also that year, AN-26 military plane crashed in the Kharkiv region. Cadets of Kharkiv University of the Air Force were on board. 19 cadets and 7 officers died.
