Putin aide +ve; global deaths near 300k
Russian president’s spokesperson is hospitalised; country now has most infections after America
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has said that he is hospitalised with the coronavirus. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax news agency on Tuesday, “Yes, I’ve gotten sick. I’m being treated.” Peskov, 52, has been Putin’s spokesman since 2008 and had started working with him in the early 2000s.
The news came even as the number of Covid-19 deaths worldwide inched towards 300,000. The total number of infections has crossed 4.2 million.
Russia on Tuesday reported 10,899 new cases of the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, taking the nationwide total number of infections past that of Britain to 232,243, the second highest worldwide, after the US, according to a John Hopkins University tally.
The country’s coronavirus response centre said the death toll from the virus rose by 107 people to 2,116. Russia puts the continued daily rise in cases down to widespread testing. It has carried out more than 5.8 million tests.
Russians who have the virus but light or no symptoms of illness are allowed to stay home, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Peskov’s hospitalisation reflects the gravity of his condition or was an extra precaution.
Reporters from the Kremlin pool said on Twitter that Peskov was last seen in public on April 30 “at a meeting with Putin”. It was not clear whether it means the two were in the same room.
Peskov’s announcement comes just a day after Putin said Russia was successful in slowing down infections and announced easing some of the nationwide lockdown restrictions.
Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin revealed on April 30 that he had tested positive and planned to self-isolate. Putin asked the prime minister to call him after checking into a hospital.
Russian authorities said they would look into the safety of artificial lung ventilators being used at two hospitals after a fire broke out in St Petersburg at one of them on Tuesday and killed five people. The blaze erupted after a ventilator in an intensive care ward treating 20 patients with the coronavirus burst into flames, TASS agency reported.