No Repetition of Coronavirus Quarantine Can Be Justified, United Russia Official Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 20 – Given that overall infections are decreasing in Russia and that the medical sector has far more effective means to fight the coronavirus, no repetition of any massive coronavirus quarantine can possibly be justified, according Pavel Shumikhin, a doctor and United Russia deputy in the Altai Kray legislature (regnum.ru/news/3041151.html).

            Today, Russian government officials registered 4785 new cases of infection, bringing that total to 942,106 and 110 additional deaths upping that toll to 16,099 (znak.com/2020-08-20/na_urale_zhenchinu_dvazhdy_oshtrafovali_za_otsutstvie_maski_v_tom_chisle_vo_vremya_suda).

            Russian medical experts say the Sputnik vaccine is currently being produced at four locations and there are plans to add two more soon (regnum.ru/news/society/3041879.html). When completed, they say, the third phase of testing will have involved 40,000 people, thus meeting the international standard (regnum.ru/news/3041890.html).

            Other medical experts point out that in addition to avoiding the consumption of alcohol before being immunized, Russians getting the coronavirus vaccine should also avoid visiting bath houses and saunas (regnum.ru/news/3041329.html).

            The pandemic continues to ebb and flow across the Russian Federation with re-openings and re-closings tracking those trends (regnum.ru/news/society/3040080.html). A major concern in many places is preparing for the reopening of schools, with many concluding they must go to distance learning or drop some activities (regnum.ru/news/3042002.html and regnum.ru/news/3041869.html).

            In Moscow, some 180,000 educators are to be tested before the end of August (regnum.ru/news/3041265.html). In another case, Moscow Oblast is ending self-isolation requirements for those over 65 or suffering from chronic illnesses (regnum.ru/news/3041861.html).

            As economic conditions have deteriorated in many places, people are seeking to move from larger to smaller apartments to save money. This shift has become so massive that demand for smaller apartments has in fact driven up rents in many large Russian cities (regnum.ru/news/3041159.html).

            Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,

·         A woman has been fined for not wearing a mask to a court hearing at which she was defending herself against charges that she hadn’t worn a mask earlier (znak.com/2020-08-20/na_urale_zhenchinu_dvazhdy_oshtrafovali_za_otsutstvie_maski_v_tom_chisle_vo_vremya_suda).

·         A church in Bashkiria was fined 200,000 rubles (3,000 US dollars) for holding a service without masks that became a super spreader event (kommersant.ru/doc/4459778).

·         Another hockey team has been sidelined because a third of its members have contracted the coronavirus (regnum.ru/news/3041453.html).