RUSSIA: NATIONWIDE PAID HOLIDAY TO COMBAT COVID OUTBREAK

Sat 30 October 2021:

On Saturday, new coronavirus restrictions went into place across Russia, with authorities hoping to reduce the number of infections and deaths.

The government’s tally on Saturday showed 40,251 new cases, the largest number of new infections since the pandemic began.

Last week, President Vladimir Putin ordered a paid holiday from Saturday to November 7 in an attempt to break a recent string of daily case and fatality records.

Since ending a brief lockdown at the start of the pandemic, Russia has held off on adopting significant statewide restrictions, pinning its hopes on the rollout of several local vaccines, including Sputnik V.

Even though several jabs have been freely available for months, just 32.5 percent of the population have been fully vaccinated, according to government statistics Saturday.

Some virus limitations have been placed across the country, but the most severe began this week in Moscow, the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak, with non-essential services being shut down.

The Russian government has been accused of downplaying the pandemic, and figures released by the statistics agency Rosstat on Friday indicated nearly twice as many COVID deaths than the government’s tally.

(with agency)

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