The global death toll from the coronavirus is over 480,000, with more than 9.4 million infections confirmed, causing mass disruptions as governments continue to try to slow the spread of the respiratory illness.
Here’s a roundup of COVID-19 developments in RFE/RL’s broadcast regions.
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan’s Health Ministry says the government in Bishkek will decide on June 25 whether to declare a state of emergency in two major cities and two provinces due to the resurgent coronavirus outbreak.
Under the previous state of emergency that ended in May, Kyrgyzstan locked down several cities and districts — including the capital Bishkek, where a curfew had been imposed.
Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov missed a June 24 parade in Moscow commemorating the end of World War II because two other people aboard his flight to the Russian capital tested positive for COVID-19 upon their arrival.
Jeenbekov’s office told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service that the head of the presidential office’s foreign-policy unit, Daniyar Sydykov, and a bodyguard had tested positive for the coronavirus.
According to a global tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University, Kyrgyz authorities had confirmed a total of 3,726 coronavirus infections in the country as of June 25 — including 43 deaths.
Ukraine
Ukraine’s health minister has said that more hospitals will open to coronavirus cases as the institutions initially chosen to accept patients no longer have enough beds to cope with a surge in infections.
Ukraine has nearly 40,000 confirmed cases and over 1,000 deaths.