Swiss give over $300m to fight coronavirus; Kiev to ease restrictions as Covid cases decline

KIEV: The mayor of Ukraine’s capital Kiev on Wednesday announced strict coronavirus measures in the city would be eased later this week as the number of new infections slowly drops.

Ex-Soviet Ukraine had recently been battered by a surge of new cases and deaths, including in Kiev, prompting authorities to tighten sweeping measures to curb the spread of the virus, including shuttering schools and malls.

They are set to reopen on Saturday alongside cinemas, gyms, and public transport, which had been restricted for use by essential workers only, Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Schools are set to reopen next Wednesday, the mayor added, following public holidays at the beginning of the week. Remaining restrictions, like maintaining social distance and masks in public, will be eased "gradually", Klitschko said.

"The infection rate in Kiev has slightly decreased, but it is too early to say that we have overcome the challenges," he said in an online briefing. Authorities in the capital had been hesitant to reimpose restrictions when cases surged over fears of damaging the economy of one of Europe’s poorest countries.

The measures came into force gradually, with cinemas and cafes closed in March and schools and public transport shuttered earlier in April. "I understand that everyone wants to return to normal life. I understand that business is suffering. But the main thing today is to preserve people’s lives and health," the mayor said.

Officials in Kiev, a city of around three million people, recorded 1,070 new cases and 40 deaths on Wednesday. Those new numbers show a downward trend in fresh infections when compared to 1,673 new cases April 22 and 1,886 on April 8.

Ukraine, with a population of around 40 million people, has struggled during the pandemic. It recorded 9,590 new cases and 441 deaths on Wednesday. In total, there have been over 2 million infections and more than 43,000 deaths. A vaccination drive was launched at the end of February and some 560,000 people have so far received a first shot.

Meanwhile, Switzerland said on Wednesday it would provide over $300 million to help boost access to jabs, tests and treatments in the fight against Covid-19, and to ensure developing countries get their fair share.

The Swiss government voiced its commitment "to ensuring equitable access to vaccines, tests and medicines worldwide in order to combat the Covid-19 pandemic sustainably." In a statement, Bern said it planned to donate some 300 million Swiss francs ($328 million, 272 million euros) to the Access to Covid Tools (ACT) Accelerator.

In a related development, Paris prosecutors are taking on and combining into a involuntary manslaughter probe three separate investigations over deaths of three people who were given the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in France, they said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors specialised in leading complex investigations into health products will take on the preliminary probes already opened after complaints were filed in Toulouse, Paris and Nantes. The initial investigations had been carried out by regional prosecutors. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, the plaintiffs are questioning if there was a causal role of the Astrazeneca vaccine in the deaths of their loved ones.

"We first went to local prosecutors for the sake of speed and to have autopsies and then asked them to transfer the file to Paris," Etienne Boittin, the lawyer behind the complaints told AFP. In Nantes, a medical student aged 26 died suddenly of a blood clot on March 18 just a few days after getting vaccinated with the AstraZeneca jab. The case from Toulouse concerns a social worker aged 38 who also died of a blood clot after her health deteriorated sharply after getting the jab.

Boittin said he was handling fifteen cases of people who died in France after having been vaccinated with AstraZeneca, the vast majority of them aged "under 60 years". France’s national health authority HAS last month said the AstraZeneca vaccine should only be given to those aged 55 and over because of reports of potentially deadly blood clots in a very small number of younger people vaccinated.

The move is broadly similar to actions taken by several European countries although Denmark has banned the use of the vaccine outright. The authorities have also said under 55s who received a first injection of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine should be given a second jab from a different producer.