Kyiv authorities have decided to toughen the measures aimed at the prevention of the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the capital in line with the government’s instruction, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
“I would like to inform you that, in line with the government’s instruction, the city has approved a decision to toughen the anti-epidemic measures in the capital. In particular, the working hours of restaurants and entertainment facilities (including cinemas) are restricted until 22:00. Mass cultural, entertainment, sports, promotional events also can be held until 22:00,” the mayor said during an online press conference on Wednesday.
As reported, Kyiv registered 101 new COVID-19 cases, including 7 medical workers, in the past 24 hours.
The revenue of Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), the parent company of the Metinvest mining and smelting group, in April 2020 decreased by 13.2%, or $113 million compared to the previous month, to $742 million from $855 million. According to the company’s preliminary unaudited consolidated monthly financial statements, EBITDA for April totaled $126 million, which is $45 million less than in March ($171 million), while EBITDA from participation in joint venture was $15 million (in March $28 million).
According to the report, the adjusted EBITDA of the group’s metallurgical division in April 2020 amounted to $64 million (in March $108 million), including “minus” $1 million from participation in joint venture (“minus” $3 million). The mining division’s EBITDA is $94 million ($100 million in March), including $16 million ($31 million) from joint venture. The management company’s expenses amounted to $6 million ($9 million).
The total revenue in April consisted of $580 million of the metal division (in March $672 million), $240 million from mining ($277 million), and $78 million of intra-group sales ($94 million).
The total debt of the company in April decreased by $34 million compared with March, to $3.073 billion from $3.107 billion. At the same time, the amount of cash decreased by $58 million, to $270 million from $328 million.
The funds used in investing activities amounted to $67 million, in financial activities $11 million.
The initial registration of new passenger cars in Ukraine in June this year increased by 12% from June 2019, to 7,300 units, the Ukrautoprom association reports.
At the same time, compared with May of this year, the demand for passenger cars increased by 21.7%.
Taking into account the June registrations in the first half of the year, the market for new passenger cars slowed down the decline to 4% compared to the same period last year (in January-May the market decreased by 7%), while registrations amounted to 37,100 units.
In June, Renault became the best-selling brand, pushing Toyota, the leader of May 2020 and June 2019, to the second position, its primary registrations grew by 19% from June 2019, to 1,155 units.
Toyota registrations decreased by 4%, to 1,049 units, and Kia retained the third position with an increase of 39%, to 677 units.
The fourth place (compared with the sixth one in June 2019) belongs to Skoda, which has 481 cars and a 29% growth, and Hyundai ranked fifth with 398 vehicles (up by 4%).
The ten most popular brands included Peugeot with 328 cars (30% more), Mercedes-Benz with 286 units (51% more), Suzuki with 277 units (5% more), Nissan with 232 units (44% less), and Mazda with 231 units (24% more).The best-selling car of June was KIA Sportage with 584 cars bought.
The decrease in the number of cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in Ukraine over the last three days has led to the stabilization of important indicators of the epidemic in Ukraine after a month of continuous growth.
According to the Health Ministry, in particular, the maximum average daily morbidity for two weeks in the first wave of the epidemic was 474 patients and was recorded on the day of the start easing lockdown, on May 10, and the second maximum of 547 patients was on June 29. There was a local minimum between them of 382 patients on May 29.
According to the Health Ministry, on May 29, Ukraine also reached the local minimum of a weekly average daily incidence of 375 patients after the first peak of 476 patients on early May. After almost a month of continuous growth, a new peak of 917 patients was reached on June 27.
These figures fell to 840 patients (an average figure over two weeks) and some 855 patients (an average figure over a week) by early July.
The World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that the length of time between the moment of COVID-19 infecting and the symptoms onset is usually about five to six days, but can vary from one to 14 days. In almost all countries, the number of registered cases on weekend falls significantly for administrative reasons. Therefore, the world uses daily average morbidity diagrams for the last one and two weeks.
Among other indicators that have stabilized in recent days, the number of hospitalized people per day is the following: some 201 patients on average over a week and some 187 patients on average over two weeks, whereas before that they had almost continuously increased from 100 to 110 patients in late May and early June.
The growth of such indicator as the ratio of the number of cases to the number of PCR tests averaged over the week also stopped.
The graphs reflecting the number of deaths from COVID-19 disease are fluctuating strongly as before. On June 28, they reached their maximum indicator since the start of the epidemic, namely, almost 18 people on average over two weeks or more than 19 people on average over a week, but in the last three days they have been declining, having returned to the level of early May.
However, it is still not possible to stop another important plot – the number of people infected with COVID-19 at present.
As a result, Ukraine entered the government-defined “red” disease zone with over 40 patients per 100,000 populations with a current value of this indicator of about 58 patients.
Volumes of cargo transportation in Jan-Apr of 2020, Mln tons
Tenants during lockdown have the right to seek for a reduction in rent in court, but this procedure does not really work, Head of Omerta Organized Law Group Yevhen Fedoseyev has said.
“In case of refusal to reduce the rent, the tenant has the right to apply to court for a forced reduction of the rent. After the court decision comes into force, the rent will be reduced by a percentage and for the period that will be indicated in the court decision. But this procedure doesn’t work in practice, with a few exceptions,” he told Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on bill No. 3377 adopted at the final stage by parliament, which offers a mechanism to support tenants during lockdown.
“In order to be able to really reduce the rent or take vacations for the lockdown period, there must be an ideal and detailed lease agreement, which in most cases does not exist. As a rule, the lease agreement is formal,” he said.
Fedoseyev said that in many cases business entities that suspended activities due to lockdown are forced to apply to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for force majeure certificates.
He also said that currently, the regulatory framework does not provide a mechanism for determining the amount of preferential rents, in particular in situations where, due to circumstances for which the tenant is not responsible, the tenant is not able to use the property. According to the Civil Code, the tenant is exempt from payment for the entire time during which the property could not be used by him due to circumstances for which he is not responsible.
