MOSCOW: Russia’s daily COVID-19 mortality numbers have been surging for weeks and topped 1,000 for the first time during the weekend amid sluggish vaccination rates, lax public attitudes towards taking precautions, and the government’s reluctance to toughen restrictions. Russia reported 1,028 COVID deaths in 24 hours on October 20, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
The largest number of fatalities were reported in the country’s two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. There was also a rapid increase in the number of positive tests for the virus, with 34,073 people confirmed to have been infected over the same period.
Russia’s workers were ordered to stay off work for a week starting later this month amid soaring numbers of new COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the government’s plans to order workers across the country a week off, in a bid to halt a sharp spike in the number of deaths from coronavirus.
At a meeting of government officials on Wednesday, Putin gave the go-ahead for preparations to extend a two-day planned national holiday and keep many employees at home, with pay, for a full week.
Under the plans, offices will be closed nationwide between October 30 and November 7, but Putin added that in some regions where the situation is the most threatening, the non-working period could start as early as Saturday and be extended after November 7.
According to Putin, it is now vital that Russia “breaks the chain of the spread of the virus… Our main task now is to protect the lives of citizens and, as far as possible, minimize the spread of COVID-19 infections.”
The plan also proposes to transfer all unvaccinated employees older than 60 to a remote-working arrangement for the next month, and offer staff two separate days on which to go and get vaccinated against COVID-19.
About 45 million Russians, or 32 percent of the country’s nearly 146 million people, are fully vaccinated.
In some regions, mounting infections forced authorities to suspend medical assistance to the population as healthcare facilities were forced to focus on treating coronavirus patients.
In Moscow, however, life has continued as usual, with restaurants and movie theatres brimming with people, crowds swarming nightclubs and karaoke bars, and commuters widely ignoring mask mandates on public transportation, even as intensive care units have filled in recent weeks.
