Ukraine's President, Chief Of Presidential Office Hospitalized Due To COVID-19

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the head of his office have been hospitalized after contracting the coronavirus earlier this week.

Zelenskiy and the head of the presidential office, Andriy Yermak, are being treated at Kyiv’s Feofaniya Clinical Hospital, Yermak’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in a November 12 interview with the online newspaper Ukrayinska Pravda.

“A special office has been equipped there to enable the president to hold conferences. He has held a large number of conference calls today,” Podolyak said.

He said Yermak has a separate, isolated ward.

Zelenskiy first went home “but decided to move to Feofania [hospital] to accurately isolate and not expose anyone,” Reuters quoted a presidential spokeswoman as saying.

“There are better conditions for patients. Nothing serious,” she said, referring to the president’s condition.

On November 9, Zelenskiy’s office said he had tested positive for coronavirus, adding that the president “is feeling well and will continue to perform his duties remotely in self-isolation.”

Minutes later, Yermak also announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and that he was feeling “fine.”

Other top Ukrainian officials, including the finance and defense ministers, were also reported to be infected.

Health authorities said on November 12 that the country registered a record 11,057 new coronavirus cases over the previous 24 hours, with 198 new deaths.

The new infections took the total confirmed cases to 500,865, with 9,145 deaths.

Based on reporting by Reuters, UNIAN, and Interfax