The possibility of introducing a lockdown has been increasingly discussed lately, given the worsening epidemiological situation with the coronavirus incidence.
What's "lockdown"
Lockdown is a severe form of quarantine that restricts free movement around the country and freedom of certain activity within a certain zone. Under such a system of restrictive measures, only essential organizations and critical infrastructure facilities function as usual.
Read alsoDaily COVID-19 high beats record second day in row with over 16,000 cases reported Nov 27The regime may involve the shitdown of the country's borders, introduction of a curfew, and suspension of international and intercity travel, closure of educational institutions, catering and entertainment establishments.
Such restrictions were already in force in Ukraine from mid-March to late May.
Then the authorities resorted to strict quarantines to prepare the health care system for the influx of COVID-19 patients.
Since the end of May, quarantine bans began to weaken as the government introduced an adaptive quarantine before recently replacing it by a weekend quarantine.
Conditions for full lockdown
The Cabinet of Ministers is mulling the possibility of introducing strict quarantine during New Year's holidays as one of the possible scenarios.
At the same time, Minister of Health Maksym Stepanov noted that the only grounds for the urgent introduction of a lockdown can be an over 75% load of hospitals, which would imply a threat of a collapse of the health care system.
The office of the President of Ukraine, in turn, claims that the decision to introduce a lockdown can be made after the third week of "weekend quarantine" – that is, after November 28-29.
