The first lady of Ukraine has been taken to the hospital after contracting the coronavirus.
Olena Zelenska, the 42-year-old wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, has been hospitalized with double pneumonia after her diagnosis, the president’s office said in a Tuesday statement. Zelensky and the couple’s two children all tested negative for COVID-19 on Monday.
“Olena Zelenska’s current diagnosis is COVID-19 — bilateral polysegmental pneumonia of moderate severity. [She] does not require oxygen donation. The condition is stable,” the office said in a statement.
Zelensky, who became a U.S. household name last year during the Democratic-led impeachment of President Trump, canceled all of his upcoming events and meetings after he learned of his wife’s diagnosis.
Ukraine went into lockdown back in March along with many other European countries. The country began to ease restrictions in May, and flights were allowed to resume trips to Ukraine on Monday. There has been an uptick in COVID-19 cases recently, with the total number of infections in the country surpassing 33,000. The nation has suffered at least 922 deaths since the pandemic began.
“We all confused the mitigation of quarantine measures with the complete abolition of all restrictions that exist in the country,” said health minister Maksym Stepanov about the uptick in cases.
Zelenska joins other first ladies who have contracted COVID-19, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau. The wife of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also tested positive for the respiratory illness.
Worldwide, more than 8 million cases of the virus have been confirmed, and there have been at least 438,000 deaths.
