Russia Now at ‘Unstable’ Plateau in Pandemic, Epidemiologists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 17 – Moscow epidemiologists say that Russia today is at what they call “an insufficiently” stable plateau as far as the coronavirus is concerned, with some questioning official statistics but others hoping that prophylactic measures and the targeting of active groups even though overall vaccinations remain low are responsible for the decline from earlier peaks.

            But they warn that Russia has not yet had much experience with the more virulent strains of the virus and that once they arrive, what the authorities have done up to now won’t be enough to prevent a new wave of the pandemic (regnum.ru/news/3245654.html and kp.ru/daily/27266.5/4399379/).

            Some Duma deputies suggested that Russia may reach herd immunity by August of this year as a result of increasing vaccinations and increasing numbers of people who have been infected but recovered, but others are more pessimistic that such a goal could be reached that quickly (regnum.ru/news/3245620.html).

            Today, Russian officials reported registering 9321 new cases of infection and 398 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours as the pandemic continued to ebb and flow across the country, with more places reporting improvements than deteriorations (t.me/COVID2019_official/2788  and regnum.ru/news/society/3241939.html).

            On the vaccine front, Germans have taken the lead in engaging in vaccination tourism by coming to Russia to get the Sputnik-5 medication even though the costs of such trips are as much as 3,000 rubles (400 US dollars) (kp.ru/daily/27266.5/4399948/).

            On the economic front, a Superjob poll reported that 47 percent of Russians approve of the measures their bosses at work have taken in response to the pandemic. Only 15 percent disapproved. Women were slightly more likely than men to approve what their bosses have done, 53 percent to 44 percent respectively (echo.msk.ru/news/2823418-echo.html).

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

·         Moscow plans to charge Russian tourists caught in Turkey for their return to Russia by special flights after the authorities suspended flights between the two countries (newizv.ru/news/society/17-04-2021/10-tys-est-u-vseh-rosturizm-predlagaet-sdelat-platnymi-vyvoznye-reysy-iz-turtsii).

·         Deputy Interior Minster Aleksandr Gorovoy says Moscow plans to launch a major effort to expel hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers who are in Russia illegally now that the pandemic is easing (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/84881).

·         The biggest beneficiaries of the staggered re-opening of facilities have been Russian move theaters which have made more money relative to what they had been taking in that other cultural venues, analysts say (bfm.ru/news/469992).