Sunday, August 2, 2020

Pandemic has Forced 30 Percent of Russians to Work at Home or Seek New Employment


Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 31 – Despite the pandemic and quarantine, 70 percent of Russians say they continue to work in the same way at the same place; only 30 percent indicate that they have had to work at home or seek new positions because they have lost old ones, a Levada Center survey reports (levada.ru/2020/07/31/koronavirus-strah-i-zanyatost/).

            Thus, the dislocations and changes many have talked about while large have hardly been as all-embracing as some coverage has suggested.  And that in turn means that the impact of the coronavirus on patterns of employment and the underlying structure of the economy is likely to be less than many have suggested.

            The pandemic nonetheless continues. Russian officials reported that they had registered 5482 new cases of infection bringing that total to 839,981 and 161 new deaths, upping that total to 161 (t.me/COVID2019_official/1171). In some places, where the numbers had been trending down, including Moscow, they are now rising again (regnum.ru/news/3025346.html).

            In others, such as Chechnya, the new figures have jumped (regnum.ru/news/3025582.html), while in a third group of regions, they have continued as much the same level or declined. One more senior official, Yamal head Dmitry Artyulkhov reportedly has fallen ill with the coronavirus (regnum.ru/news/3025250.html).

            Openings and re-closings have followed these trends. To give but one of dozens of examples, officials in Tyva, officials said that the threat is so great that wearing masks and observing social distance and sanitary rules “must become the new norm of life” (regnum.ru/news/3024890.html).

            Russian Railways announced it was restoring the operation of 180 runs that had been stopped earlier (regnum.ru/news/3025542.html), and airlines, which have announced the restoration of international flights, are as yet finding it difficult to meet the schedules they have announced (lenta.ru/news/2020/07/31/otmena/).

            At the same time, Russian consumer affairs officials are telling people to be careful in planning foreign trips and to check schedules several days in advance of departure because unexpected changes are still quite possible (regnum.ru/news/3025335.html).

            Economic news remains dire. Economists say the real decline in Russian incomes may be twice what the government is saying (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78687) and add Moscow is trying to make the situation appear better than it is by citing growth from the bottom of the decline rather than comparing figures now with those before the pandemic (krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/78692).


            And especially infuriating in this regard is a report in Izvestiya that prices for domestically produced medications have soared 23.8 percent since the pandemic began while imported drugs have gone up only 7.5 percent (iz.ru/1042068/anna-ivushkina/tcennyi-sbor-vyruchka-aptek-v-pervom-polugodii-vyrosla-na-14).

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

·         Since the pandemic began, Russians have been buying more life insurance policies (regnum.ru/news/3025082.html).

·         Cancer patients are finding it harder to get chemotherapy because hospitals have refocused on treating those with coronavirus infections (idelreal.org/a/30756949.html).

·         Moscow officials report that they have fined more than 6,000 firms a total or more than 300 million rubles (4.8 million US dollars) for failing to require masks be worn by sales personnel and customers (https://tass.ru/moskva/9091935).

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