Ukraine on 19 March 2020: new school law and closed borders
A look back at the public-life developments that framed Ukraine's mid-March 2020, from the first COVID-19 death to a new education law taking effect.
What did Ukrainians face on 19 March 2020? A country already adjusting to the early weeks of the coronavirus outbreak, and to a new framework for its schools.
On 13 March 2020, Ukraine's Ministry of Healthcare reported the country's first death from COVID-19. The victim was a 71-year-old woman from Radomyshl, in Zhytomyr region.
Border rules tightened soon afterwards. From 00:00 on 16 March 2020, Ukraine banned foreigners and stateless persons from entering the country until 3 April.
On 18 March 2020, the law "On Complete General Secondary Education" came into force, the day before the date covered here. It took effect as the country was dealing with the first death from the disease and the entry ban.
Taken together, the reports from those days show public life in Ukraine being shaped at once by an emergency and by a long-running legislative change.
