Nearly 90 Percent of Russian Military Personnel have Received at Least One Shot of Vaccine

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 18 – The defense ministry says that approximately 850,000 of its uniformed personnel have now received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine, even as the rate of vaccinations in the civilian population continues to slow (regnum.ru/news/3272836.html and rfi.fr/ru/россия/20210518-нарастающее-отчуждение-граждан-от-власти-почему-в-россии-буксует-вакцинация).

            Russian officials reported registering 8183 new cases of infection and 364 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, as the pandemic continued to ebb and flow across the country with significant improvements in the Transbaikal and the Russian Far East (t.me/COVID2019_official/2950 and regnum.ru/news/society/3267667.html).

            The two capitals remained hotspots and the focus of government concern, although the number of new infections in Moscow fell by more than a thousand from yesterday to today even though the media reported that there are shortages of some vaccines in some parts of the city (iarex.ru/articles/81023.html).

            The number of deaths in St. Petersburg rose by more than ten percent from yesterday to today, a figure of particular concern because of the approaching economic crisis that the Kremlin does not want to postpone especially as the Davos meeting has just been rescheduled (echo.msk.ru/blog/oreh/2840176-echo/, regnum.ru/news/3272233.html and regnum.ru/news/3271880.html).

            Vladimir Putin announced that Russia will soon be registering a fourth Russian covid vaccine, and other officials said Russia has developed a special medication that can be used to protect those who may have come into contact with infected people (regnum.ru/news/3272348.html and ura.ru/news/1052485463).

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

·         Thailand has expressed interest in purchasing the Russian vaccine against covid in animals (regnum.ru/news/3272761.html).

·         Russian tour operators say they expect the renewal of flights to Turkey by the end of May, far earlier than the government had announced earlier (regnum.ru/news/3272681.html).

·         More reports are coming in that those suffering from other diseases, including HIV/AIDS and circulatory ailments, were not able to get the medications they needed since the pandemic began because of Moscow’s priorities (novayagazeta.ru/articles/2021/05/19/issledovanie-zakuplennye-v-2020-godu-antiretrovirusnye-preparaty-pokryvaiut-potrebnosti-menee-poloviny-vich-infitsirovannykh-rossiian and ng.ru/health/2021-05-18/8_8150_catastrophe.html).