Virus puts Putin aide in hospital
MOSCOW – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has been hospitalized with the coronavirus, the latest in a series of setbacks for President Vladimir Putin as Russia struggles to contain the growing outbreak.
“Yes, I’ve gotten sick. I’m being treated,” Peskov, a key Putin aide, told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday.
Also infected was Peskov’s wife, Olympic ice dancing champion Tatyana Navka. She told reporters that Peskov’s condition was “satisfactory” and that the couple decided to enter the hospital so as not to expose the rest of their family.
“He brought it (the virus) from work,” Navka was quoted as saying by the Daily Storm online outlet.
Peskov, 52, has been Putin’s spokesman since 2008 but began working with him in the early 2000s.
The Tass news agency quoted Peskov saying he last saw Putin in person “more than a month ago.”
Reporters from the Kremlin pool said on Twitter that Peskov was last seen in public April 30 at a meeting with Putin. It was not clear whether they were in the same room because Putin has been conducting meetings via teleconference in recent weeks.
Peskov is not the only top government official to come down with the coronavirus. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin revealed April 30 that he had tested positive for the virus. The next day, Construction and Housing Minister Vladimir Yakushev was hospitalized with it, and Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova said last week she was selfisolating after getting infected.
The announcement of Peskov’s hospitalization came a day after Putin said Russia was slowing the outbreak and announced he was easing some of the nationwide lockdown restrictions.
Russia has reported more than 232,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 2,100 virus-related deaths as of Tuesday. Hours before Putin made a televised speech Monday about ending the partial economic lockdown, health officials reported a daily record of over 11,600 new cases.
“Let’s remember this,” opposition politician Alexei Navalny tweeted after Putin’s speech. “Putin lifted nationwide restrictions aimed at curbing the epidemic on the day when a record has been set in new infections. W for ‘wisdom.’ ”
On Tuesday, health officials once again reported almost 11,000 new infections.
Health officials also said they were investigating the safety of ventilators after the fires in intensive care units, apparently caused by malfunctioning ventilators, killed a total of six people in the past four days.
A fire Tuesday at St. George Hospital in St. Petersburg killed five patients on ventilators. Another blaze Saturday at the Spasokukotsky Hospital in Moscow killed one patient. Both hospitals had been repurposed for treating coronavirus patients, and in both cases, faulty Russianmade ventilators were reported to have started the fires.