KYIV, Dec 15 - One police officer was knocked unconscious and 40 others received chemical eye burns from gas on Tuesday in clashes between police and thousands of people protesting a government lockdown to fight the coronavirus, Reuters reported citing the interior ministry.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has announced a tight national lockdown starting in January to fight the spread of COVID-19, in the wake of a recent spike in cases.

At a rally of entrepreneurs and representatives of small businesses on Kyiv’s Independence Square, clashes between helmeted riot police and demonstrators erupted after the protesters tried to set up tents.

“One policeman was hit on the head - and he lost consciousness. Another 40 received chemical eye burns,” the interior ministry said in a statement.

Three police officers were hospitalized after being attacked by a group of drunk men, police said in a separate statement.

More than 900,000 people have contracted the novel coronavirus in Ukraine.

The new lockdown measures, which include the closure of schools, cafes, restaurants, gyms and entertainment centers and a ban on mass gatherings, will be in force from Jan. 8 to 24.

The government last month introduced a lockdown at weekends, closing or restricting most businesses except those involved in essential services such as grocery shops, pharmacies, hospitals and transportation. It lifted the restrictions on Dec. 2.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) preliminarily estimates the loss of Ukraine's GDP from the enhanced quarantine in January 2021 at 0.2%, according to Deputy NBU Governor Dmytro Sologub.

Commenting on the impact of the "weekend quarantine," which was in effect for six days off in November, Sologub noted that its impact is likely to be lower than previously expected by the National Bank.

"We were expecting an impact of approximately up to 0.2 percentage points on GDP. We can say that, most likely, it will be smaller," Sologub said.

Sologub said the main impact is not so much the restrictions themselves during the quarantine period, but the deterioration of business expectations.

"Business, people did not really understand exactly the way the quarantine would be introduced," he said. (rt/tl/ez)