covid-19 pandemic in the luhansk people's republic covid-19 pandemic in the luhansk people's republic the covid-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the luhansk people's republic (lpr), a disputed russian republic in eastern ukraine, in march 2020. for the rest of ukraine, see covid-19 pandemic in ukraine. not to be confused with covid-19 pandemic in luhansk oblast. covid-19 pandemic in the luhansk people's republicdiseasecovid-19virus strainsars-cov-2locationluhansk people's republicarrival date30 march 2020(3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days) background on 12 january 2020, the world health organization (who) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in wuhan city, hubei province, china, which was reported to the who on 31 december 2019. the case fatality ratio for covid-19 has been much lower than sars of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. timeline april 2020 in april, ukrainian officials estimated more than 400 cases in the occupied parts of donetsk and luhansk, and cast doubt on announcements by the lpr and dpr.