Pandemic Not Under Control Everywhere in Russia, Officials Admit

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 1 – Moscow is taking credit for the easing of the pandemic not only in the major cities but in most of the regions of the Russian Federation, but officials concede and independent observers conclude that the coronavirus is not under control everywhere and still represents a serious problem (profile.ru/society/okruzhen-no-ne-slomlen-covid-19-poka-ne-udaetsya-vzyat-pod-kontrol-na-vsej-territorii-strany-620636/).

            In some places, the rates of infection remain high or even are increasing. In many, they remain plateaued at a high level; and vaccines are not yet reaching many who need them. In at least one case, Penza, residents are having to take part in a lottery to determine who will receive the limited quantity available (sobkorr.org/news/6017B37D2750C.html).

            For the country as a whole, however, the numbers of new infections and deaths are down with those figures today being 17,648 and 437 respectively, the lowest since October. But in part this may reflect a massive decline in the number of tests, which have fallen precipitously in places officials have said are improving (t.me/COVID2019_official/2425, echo.msk.ru/news/2783298-echo.html and regnum.ru/news/3178322.html).

            In many places vaccination efforts are taking off. In Moscow Oblast, more than 87,000 people have received the shots, and in Daghestan, officials are now giving shots to Muslim religious and to members of the Russian Guard (regnum.ru/news/3178652.html and regnum.ru/news/3178711.html).

            The Russian authorities are making it easier to sign up for the vaccinations by allowing people to do so online (gosuslugi.ru/10069/1/form). Former president Dmitry Medvedev has now received his shots, and he says that Russia may permit the importation of foreign vaccines if they are safe and effective (regnum.ru/news/3178212.html  and regnum.ru/news/3178227.html).

Armenia today became the latest foreign country to approve Russia’s Sputnik-5 for use on its citizens (rbc.ru/society/01/02/2021/601811389a7947e17a81857f?from=from_main_1).

            As final figures for 2020 come in, Russian economists say that they show the economy of Russia fell last year by the greatest amount in 11 years (mbk-news.appspot.com/news/padenie-ekonomiky/).

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

·         Moscow city officials reported that doctors in the capital are now conducting more than 5,000 online consultations each day (echo.msk.ru/blog/covid2019_official/2783382-echo/).

·         Some fear that calls by Muslim leaders for the producers of Russian vaccines to prove the medications conform to Islamic dietary rules will reduce the willingness of some believers to get the vaccine (forum-msk.org/material/news/16971682.html).

·         Russian officials have stepped up their media campaign to convince Russians that they should not buy fake medications against the coronavirus now being offered online (newizv.ru/news/society/01-02-2021/rospotrebnadzor-predostereg-rossiyan-ot-pokupok-chudo-tabletok-ot-covid-u-moshennikov).