President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the coronavirus epidemic in Ukraine is still mild, but violations of the quarantine on Easter could result in "scary" statistics.
He said this on the air of Savik Shuster's Freedom of Speech talk show on Ukrayina TV.
"Now we are in a very good control of the situation, now we have very good figures. Therefore people should know: holidays are holidays, but next year. We'll all go to church together. But today, we need to be patient and at least once react not with your heart, but with your mind," he said.
Zelenskyy fears that after Easter there will be a hike in the disease rate in Ukraine.
"We may have scary statistics after Easter - from 2% to 10% of the entire Ukrainian population sick. People who don’t self-isolate and go to church, you know what they are doing? They are confronting doctors with a choice, the way it happened in Italy... If there are 2% to 10% of cases, doctors will decide who will live on," the president said.
At the same time, he emphasized that this can be avoided if people comply with the "not strict so far" quarantine conditions. "No-one is welding up doors to houses, no-one is beating anyone, no-one is pushing anyone home by force," he said.
If there is no steep outbreak of coronavirus after Easter, the first steps to soften the quarantine may be announced at the end of next week.
According to Zelenskyy, the government policy announcement is expected on 24 May.
"People will understand what quarantine measures will be relaxed. Because part of the people will need to be let go to work. Some industries that are very important to us will partially open. There may be a partial relaxation concerning transport in May. Such things will happen if there is no big wave," Zelenskyy said.
As of the morning of 17 April, Ukraine had 4,7000 cases of coronavirus, including 125 deaths and 246 recoveries.