Russian covid-19 deaths hit record for 3rd time in October
MOSCOW — Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit a record for the third time this month on Tuesday, and daily new infections once again exceeded 25,000 — a surge that comes as vaccination rates in the country remain low and the government shuns imposing tough restrictions to stem the spread.
Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 25,110 new confirmed cases Tuesday and 895 new deaths — the country’s highest daily death toll in the pandemic. The previous record, of 890 deaths, was registered Sunday, and the one before that, of 887 deaths, occurred Friday.
The Kremlin has said that the situation elicits concern, but still it is not considering a countrywide lockdown or any other nationwide measures.
Deputy Prime Minister and head of the country’s coronavirus task force Tatyana Golikova said Tuesday that Russia is close to registering 30,000 coronavirus infections a day. There are three times more confirmed coronavirus cases this fall compared with last fall, she said.
Golikova added that the government has discussed a number of measures with authorities in the regions that would allow the avoidance of a lockdown. She didn’t offer details about what these measures would entail, saying only that they imply a “stage-bystage approach depending on the epidemiological situation in the specific region.”
A number of Russian regions have limited attendance of mass events and restricted access to some public places, such as theaters, cinemas, restaurants and bars, only to those who have been vaccinated, recently recovered from covid-19 or tested negative over the past 72 hours. But critics question whether these measures are enough to slow down the surge.
Golikova on Tuesday promised grants to regions if they declare themselves “free of covid-19.”
In some areas of the country, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, life remains largely normal, with businesses operating as usual and mask mandates loosely enforced.
In the meantime, Russia’s vast, yet severely underfunded health care system has started to show signs of being overwhelmed by the outbreak.
Russian media have reported long lines of ambulances once again forming in front of hospitals in St. Petersburg, the country’s second-largest city, and a desperate ambulance crew in the city of Vladimir about 110 miles east of Moscow driving a covid-19 patient to a local government building after failing to find a hospital bed for her.
Officials have blamed low vaccine uptake. Commenting on the record deaths reported on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the “main cause” of the surge in fatalities was “the insufficient level of vaccination.”
“The virus is becoming angrier, and the level of vaccination is insufficient. And as a rule, those who haven’t been vaccinated get seriously ill and, unfortunately, die,” Peskov told reporters Tuesday.
Golikova said on Tuesday that nearly 33% of Russia’s 146 million people had received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, and just 29% have been fully vaccinated.
According to Gogov.ru, a independent website that tracks vaccinations in Russia, immunization rates are down to the level of April, after spiking between June and August, when dozens of Russian regions made shots mandatory for certain groups of people. The website estimates that about 129,000 people a day get their first shots, and a total of some 244,000 first and second shots a day is being administered in Russia at the moment.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization is still reviewing data about Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine as part of hopes that it can be approved by the U.N. health agency for emergency use against coronavirus, but said Tuesday that no decision is imminent.
The clarification comes after Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko in recent days said that administrative issues were among the main holdups in WHO’s decision-making process about whether to grant an emergency use listing to Sputnik V, as it has for a half-dozen other vaccines.
Such approval would be a show of international confidence in the vaccine after a rigorous review process, and could pave the way for its inclusion into the COVAX program organized by WHO and key partners that is shipping covid-19 vaccines to scores of countries around the world based on need.
“As with other candidate vaccines, WHO continues to assess Sputnik V vaccines from different manufacturing sites and will publish decisions on their [emergency use listing] status when all the data are available and the review is concluded,” WHO said in a statement. “The [emergency use listing] assessment process aims to speed up equitable access to vaccines in order to save lives and bring the covid-19 pandemic under control.”
The vaccines WHO has approved are Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Sinovac and Sinopharm.