Poland has closed all schools, museums and cinemas, while Ukraine’s capital city Kiev will shut all educational buildings due to fears of coronavirus spreading despite both countries having lower rates of infection compared to the rest of Europe.
Speaking at a joint conference following a special meeting on coronavirus, Polish ministers said that pre-schools and schools would stop teaching on Thursday, but limited care would still be provided this week to the youngest children.
Universities, museums, theaters and cinemas will also close on Thursday for two weeks, the officials said.
The move is also being carried out by Poland’s neighbour, Ukraine, in its capital city, Kiev.
Poland has confirmed 26 cases of coronavirus, but looking at how fast the virus spreads in some other European countries, the government decided to take the preventive action, officials said. The Mayor of Kiev, Vitaly Klitschko, whose country has counted just one case, said he was introducing similar ‘preventive measures’.
Rates of infection in both Poland and Ukraine are far lower than in the rest of Europe. The UK has 382 confirmed cases of the killer disease and six fatalities.
Polish Border Guard officers during a sanitary control on the Polish-Ukrainian railway border in Przemysl, southeastern Poland, yesterday
Health workers wear a protective masks and suits as they stands next to a temporary health facility before screening passengers on the A1 highway near the Polish-Czech border yesterday in Gorzyczki, Poland
Police officers in protective suits conduct medical checks and temperature measurements of drivers and passengers at the Polish-Czech border crossing yesterday due to concerns about the spread of the new coronavirus
‘We are in a very difficult situation, but we see on the example of Italy that this position may be much more difficult,’ Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told the news conference.
‘There is no epidemiological threat in schools, we are just trying to prevent (the virus from spreading),’ Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski told the same conference.
He said that children should stay at home and refrain from using public transport. On Tuesday Poland’s development minister said 2020 economic growth could be 0.5 to 1.3 percentage points lower than previously expected. The state budget assumes gross domestic product growth at 3.7 per cent this year.
‘There is no danger that the general government deficit will exceed 3% of GDP this year,’ a Finance Ministry spokesman said.
Poland’s closures come after the country’s top military commander, General Jaroslaw Mika, contracted the coronavirus while on a mission in Germany, according to the defence ministry.
In a tweet yesterday, the ministry added that he was doing well and that others who flew with him were in quarantine.
Poland also banned mass events and expanded existing health checks on the German and Czech borders to also cover Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
Travellers arriving by road, rail or ferry will have their temperature taken and their details will be collected in case they need to be contacted.
Most of the COVID-19 cases in Poland have developed in people returning from Germany.
Universities across the country also announced the full or partial suspension of classes for at least two weeks.
Poland’s PZPN national football association also announced that fans will be banned from two friendly matches scheduled later this month with Finland and Ukraine.
Poland also confirmed it would be cancelling mass events to stem the coronavirus’s deadly spread.
In Ukraine, kindergartens, movie theatres and entertainment centres will also be closed and mass events cancelled, Klitschko said on Facebook.
‘Even though not a single case of the coronavirus has been registered in Kiev, we have decided not to wait and protect the residents of the city,’ the mayor said.
The measure concerns about 113,000 children in kindergartens and 308,000 primary and secondary school students, a representative of the mayor’s office told AFP.
A medical official with protective gear takes the body temperature of a passenger, who arrived on a flight from New York City, as a preventive measure against the coronavirus (COVID-19) at the Boryspil International Airport outside Kiev, Ukraine yesterday
The Ukrainian government is expected to announce similar measures across the country later Wednesday.
Ukrainian authorities have so far announced just one confirmed case of the novel virus, but there is widespread concern in the country as many Ukrainians work in European nations affected by the virus, including Italy.
Poland and Ukraine’s defensive response are the latest announcements in a sweeping set of protective measures being rolled out by the former eastern bloc countries.