The village of Vysokopillia in Kharkiv region has been put into lockdown after a 71-year-old candle seller at a local church has died of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus.
"This village is now in lockdown. Why? Because we know that the old lady was in the church on the weekend, selling church candles. Therefore, the number of people with whom she was in contact could probably be very large," Kharkiv region's Governor Oleksiy Kucher said at a briefing, according to hromadske.ua.
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The exact number of exposed persons is now being established, "but this is a large number of people," he said.
Mobile teams have been sent to the village to collect villagers' samples for coronavirus testing.
Exit and entry into Vysokopillia is not prohibited, but additional measures of control have been introduced. "As of today, additional control measures have been imposed. Patrols conduct entry and exit body temperature screening. Police units have also been reinforced. Transit vehicles are either asked to detour or drive without stops," Deputy Governor Taras Pastukh, who was present at the briefing, said.
As was reported, the woman was hospitalized last week and died on April 13. Two rapid tests for the coronavirus were negative, whereas a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test returned positive results.
