Ukrainian Health Minister Zoryana Skaletska went into quarantine Friday in solidarity with people returning from the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in China, a day after buses of evacuees were attacked by protesters.
Skaletska said she hoped her gesture would put paid to the rumor that some of the 72 evacuees are infected with COVID-19, which is thought to be the reason protestors stoned the bus convoy as it approached the town of Novi Sanzhary in eastern Ukraine.
A fake email claiming to be from the health ministry said some evacuees had contracted the virus, the BBC reported Ukraines security service as saying.
“[W]e have to take care of their health and safety,” Skaletska said, calling on Ukrainians to show empathy for the evacuees she insisted were being quarantined as a precaution. The BBC reported that 45 of the evacuees are Ukrainian citizens.
“Everybody is feeling well, with no signs of the virus,” the minister wrote in a