Russia: record spike in daily Covid-19 cases

Moscow, May 7 (efe-epa).- Russia set a grim record on Thursday, registering over 11,000 coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the largest spike in infections in a single day bringing the country’s total to over 177,000 confirmed cases.

According to health authorities, 11,311 Covid-19 infections were recorded in 84 of the Russian Federation’s 85 federal subjects. Of these, 5,741 (48.7 percent) were asymptomatic cases.

The new data brought Russia’s caseload to 177,160, placing the country in fifth place worldwide, and in 52nd place for cases per million people.

In the last 24 hours, 88 deaths were recorded, bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,625, since the outbreak began.

Moscow remains the country’s main hotspot of infections with more than half of cases (92,276) and deaths (905) in the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said last week that according to mathematical modelling of the disease, the actual number of infected people in the capital could be around 300,000 people, which is up to 2.5 percent of the city’s population and warned normality would not be restored anytime soon.

The mayor added that as of 12 May it would be mandatory to wear masks and gloves on public transport.

Construction companies will resume activities on the same day, but when asked about the relaxation of other measures Sobyanin said it was too soon to consider a wider lifting of the lockdown in place.

“We must never lose optimism. Getting out of this situation depends on us and on our discipline, but my opinion is that recovering a full life without restrictions will still take a while,” he added.

Sobyanin suggested the lockdown, which has been in place for over a month, could continue until July, depending on how the outbreak evolves.

The mayor said citizens should prepare “for living in a new reality that is not very comfortable for everyone, neither the economy, nor people, nor health.”

The head of The Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) Anna Popopa presented a plan on Wednesday to gradually relax the restrictive measures the country has adopted to contain the spread of the virus.