Staunton, November 14 – The medical situation in Russia’s regions is now a catastrophe, doctors from across the country tell the Meduza news agency. Deaths are skyrocketing, the healthcare system is collapsing, and the powers that be are understating just how bad things are and how many lives are being lost (meduza.io/feature/2020/11/13/v-regionah-katastrofa).
Today, the number of deaths from the coronavirus fell below 400 in the course of 24 hours for the first time in four days but only to 391, bringing that total to 32,834. New infections remained high at 22,702, raising the total to 1,903,253 (echo.msk.ru/news/2741840-echo.html and rbc.ru/society/14/11/2020/5faf90539a79477d206164af).
New restrictions appeared in many places as officials tried to cope (regnum.ru/news/society/3111606.html), including the threat of the imposition of more fines on individuals and enormous ones on businesses (regnum.ru/news/3115425.html, iz.ru/1086879/elena-sidorenko/guliat-tak-guliat-neliubov-k-maskam-stoila-moskvicham-do-500-mln-rublei and echo.msk.ru/news/2741688-echo.html).
Intriguingly, a group of Russians in Novosibirsk staged a demonstration to protest against the fact that their regional officials have not done enough to fight the pandemic (tayga.info/161558). Most protests so far have been on the other side, complaining that officials have acted in too-heavy-handed a way.
In another indication of problems in the Russian healthcare industry, Vladimir Putin personally appealed to French President Emmanuel Macron to allow French firms to help produce the Russian vaccine in sufficient amounts (challenges.fr/entreprise/sante-et-pharmacie/vaccin-contre-le-coronavirus-poutine-demande-l-aide-de-macron_736652).
The second Russian vaccine, being developed by the Chumakov Institute, is based on a complete rather than partial inactive SARS virus and should provide an even better immune response, according to its researchers (ura.news/news/1052458630).
Experts did report one positive impact of the pandemic. They say that during the pandemic, the share of Russians who get some or all of their pay under the table in ways that aren’t subject to taxes has fallen to 21 percent (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/81588).
Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,
· Yevgeny Timakov, a specialist on infectious diseases at Leader Medicine, says that people should avoid talking in public because keeping silent will reduce the chances for the spread of the coronavirus (regnum.ru/news/3115388.html).
· A patient in a coronavirus ward in Volgograd Oblast was found with a knife wound in his chest (ria.ru/20201114/nozh-1584605517.html).
· Senior interior ministry officers, including a general, have been infected, something that has slowed work down in places (business-gazeta.ru/article/488281).
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