KIEV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska, who last week tested positive for the coronavirus, has been hospitalized with pneumonia, the presidency said on Tuesday.
Zelenska, 42, has been diagnosed with double pneumonia, the presidency said, adding that oxygen treatment was not required.
“Her condition is stable,” it said in a statement.
Zelenska said on Friday she had tested positive for the coronavirus, while her husband, President Volodymyr Zelensky, and their two children had tested negative.
Zelensky’s spokeswoman Yuliya Mendel said the 42-year-old leader was “feeling well” and being tested for coronavirus “every single day”.
“All his results are negative”, she told AFP.
Zelensky continues to work from his Kiev office, but has reduced social contact and was now in touch with a “very narrow circle of people”, Mendel said.
He also cancelled domestic trips that had been scheduled for this week, she added.
Zelenska said last week the positive test was a surprise as she and the president had sought to follow social distancing rules and protected themselves.
But the president came under fire early this month when he appeared without a mask in a cafe during a visit to the city of Khmelnytsky in central Ukraine.
In an interview with Ukrainska Pravda news site last week, Zelensky said that he even wanted to get infected with the coronavirus to show people that it was “scary” but “not a plague”.
Authorities said there had been an “alarming” rise in coronavirus cases as the country eases the lockdown.
Lockdown restrictions eased gradually in late May and early June with a resumption of public transport, including metro systems and long-distance and local train services.
On Tuesday, the ex-Soviet country reported 32,476 cases and 912 fatalities.
© Agence France-Presse
