Paul Goble
Staunton, May 30 – The Israeli government has prohibited its citizens from travelling to Russia until at least the middle of June because of the sharp spike in coronavirus cases in Russia, a spike that is especially sharp in Moscow and St. Petersburg to which most Israeli visitors go (gov.il/en/departments/news/30052021-01).
Russian officials reported registering today 9604 new cases of infection, half of which were in the two capitals or their environs, as well as 355 new deaths from the coronavirus, as the pandemic stabilized or ebbed most other places in the Russian Federation (t.me/COVID2019_official/2995 and regnum.ru/news/society/3277253.html).
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin blamed the upsurge in his city on the weather, arguing that the coronavirus has become a seasonal illness. Officials in St. Petersburg did not take that out (regnum.ru/news/3283100.html and regnum.ru/news/3283153.html), but they and other Russian officials urged Russians to get their shots (regnum.ru/news/3283186.html).
Faced with falling vaccination rates, the Russian government is again organizing meetings of scholars and doctors to put out the message that vaccines are safe and the most effective way to combat pandemics like the current one (svpressa.ru/health/article/299827/).
Meanwhile, a survey of Internet sales found that since the pandemic began, Rusisans have spent more time and money on gardens and also on their dachas outside of the city limits (kp.ru/online/news/4310709/).
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