Buses carrying coronavirus evacuees were met with burning barricades and smashed windows after an email containing misinformation about the illness went viral in Ukraine.
Dozens of protesters blocked the route of six buses carrying 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign nationals on Thursday as the drivers tried to make their way to a hospital in Novi Sanzhary, a town southeast of Kyiv. The passengers were being brought to the medical center for a two-week quarantine, but a viral email that Ukraine said originated in another country sowed havoc among demonstrators.
The email in question came the same day the evacuees arrived from Wuhan, China. It reportedly alleged five passengers were sick, sparking fears in Ukraine that the country would soon be plagued by the virus. Although the email appeared to come from the Ukrainian health ministry, the country said it actually came from outside Ukraine.
Health authorities scrambled to reassure the public that there have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, in Ukraine.
“Attention! The reports about five confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in Ukraine are UNTRUE,” the Center for Public Health said in a statement. “We urge the media not to disseminate this information and to inform the press service of the Health Ministry of Ukraine of the sender of this information upon receipt of the letter.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged empathy for those who were being quarantined and called for calm amid the misinformation.
“I sympathize with our evacuees, because I already know what it is to be under personal protection, and in them the protection will be much more serious than that of the president,” he said. “The danger of forgetting that we are all human and we are all Ukrainian. Each of us. Including those who ended up in Wuhan during the epidemic.”
The buses were able to reach the hospital in Novi Sanzhary, although they were hours late because of the violent demonstrations.
There have been almost 77,000 cases of coronavirus globally and more than 2,200 deaths, most of which have been in mainland China.
