Ukraine's leadership under COVID-19 strain by 18 November 2020
A look back at how the pandemic reached Ukraine's top officials and pushed case numbers to records in the days before 18 November 2020.
How exposed was Ukraine's government to the pandemic by 18 November 2020? The reports from the preceding days suggest the virus had reached its highest ranks while the country's case count kept climbing.
On 12 November 2020, it was reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky had been hospitalised after contracting COVID-19 earlier that week. Three days later, on 15 November 2020, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov tested positive for the virus.
The spread among officials came as the national figures reached new highs. On 13 November 2020, Ukraine recorded 11,787 new confirmed cases, a record for a single day. That brought the total since the start of the pandemic to 512,652 cases.
A neighbouring region in turmoil
Beyond Ukraine's borders, the political situation in Belarus was also in the news. On 17 November 2020, opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya called on European leaders to impose sanctions on supporters of President Alexander Lukashenko. Her appeal followed reports that police had used tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse protesters.
Taken together, the reports from those days show a Ukrainian state dealing with illness at the top of both the presidency and the health ministry, at a time when daily infections were at their highest recorded level.
