Zelensky's positive COVID-19 test on 9 November 2020
A look back at the day Ukraine's president and the head of his office were reported to have tested positive for the coronavirus.
What did it mean for Ukraine's government when its president tested positive for COVID-19? On 9 November 2020, Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, was reported to have received a positive result for the coronavirus, as was Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President.
As reported at the time, two top government officials besides the president were also said to have tested positive, placing the infection at the centre of the country's leadership. The reports came as the pandemic was being tracked across Europe, with Ukraine one of the countries affected.
The news stood out on a day when the region's headlines were also dominated by events elsewhere. In the South Caucasus, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that he had signed a deal with Azerbaijan and Russia to end the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War by the morning of Tuesday 10 November. A Kremlin spokesman confirmed the agreement. Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, described it as a trilateral agreement, and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russian peacekeepers would be deployed. The deal ceded several districts to Azerbaijan, including the Lachin District, and provided for a transport corridor through Armenia linking Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan.
For Kyiv, however, the immediate focus on 9 November 2020 was domestic: the health of the head of state and of the official who leads his office, and the question of how the presidency would operate while both were affected by the virus.
