KYIV, Feb 20 - A fake email about the spread of coronavirus has triggered panic in Ukraine on Thursday with violent clashes reported between protesters and police in several regions.

The email, purported to be from the Healthcare Ministry, claimed there have been five cases of deadly coronavirus in Ukraine with more infected people allegedly returning to the country from Hubei, a Chinese province worst hit by the epidemic.

Currently, there are no known cases of coronavirus in Ukraine, and the government had confirmed the email was fake.

The SBU security service said the email originated from ‘outside of Ukraine,’ but did not disclose further information, BuzzFeed News reported. Ukraine was the target of massive Russian cyberattacks in the past, including the shutdown of a regional power network and viral disinformation campaigns via social media.

Protests and clashes with riot police have broken out in several regions in Ukraine with the protesters seeking to prevent the return of the evacuated people from Hubei. Protesters have smashed the windows of buses carrying evacuees and set fire to makeshift barricades.

In Ukraine, where trust in the health care system and the government is low, anxiety about the outbreak spread as fast as the fake news claiming the first cases had arrived in the country was disseminated online.

Ukraine’s Center for Public Health put out a message warning of the fake news.

“Attention! The reports about five confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in Ukraine are UNTRUE,” the Center for Public Health said in a statement, referring to the official name of the disease caused by the coronavirus.

“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.”

Tensions reached a fever pitch by midday in the village of Novi Sanzhary, in Ukraine’s central Poltava region, where residents protested the arrival of the evacuees over fears they could be infected with the coronavirus, including smashing the windows of buses transporting them.

The protesters fought with police while trying to block the road leading to a health facility where the evacuees — 45 Ukrainians and 27 foreign citizens, as well as 22 crew members and doctors — are to be held in quarantine for at least 14 days to make sure they aren’t carrying the virus.

As the skirmish dragged on, Ukraine’s National Guard had to counter what it said was more fake news, this time about the medical staff at Novi Sanzhary’s hospital fleeing the facility.
By evening, the government had dispatched the prime minister, Oleksiy Honcharuk, and the interior minister, Arsen Avakov, to the village to deal with the turmoil.

Meanwhile, in the western Lviv region, people used tires and cars to block the entrance to a hospital because they were afraid the evacuees could be brought there and their children would get infected.

And in nearby Ternopil, people gathered with a priest on a road to block access to a medical facility and pray that the Ukrainians returning from China would be kept away from it.

“We are praying so that God can help save us from all of this,” said one of the attendees.

“God forbid the virus spreads further,” said another.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was taking ‘unprecedented’ measures to ensure everyone’s safety.

"Safety measures are unprecedented. They did everything possible and impossible to ensure that the virus does not get into Ukraine. Several citizens were not allowed to board in Wuhan, because they had a slightly elevated temperature. Everyone who boarded was in satisfactory condition," Zelenskiy said.

"They are healthy, but must be quarantined and monitored for 14 days. The evacuees will live in the closed guard center of the National Guard in Novi Sanzhary. It will be completely isolated and transferred to a strict regime of bacteriological safety. Within two weeks it will probably be the most guarded object in the country," he said. (tl/bf/ez)