Putin orders restrictions as Russia deaths soar
Moscow, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a nationwide week-long paid holiday to curb COVID-19 infections in Europe’s worst affected country and urged Russians to show ‘responsibility’ and get vaccinated.
Putin approved a government plan to declare a nonworking week across the country from October 30 as Russia registered a record 1,028 coronavirus deaths in a single day.
“The main aim is to protect the lives and health of our citizens,” the 69 year old Kremlin chief said during a televised meeting.
He said the severity of the outbreak in Russia was linked to the country’s vaccination rates that are ‘unfortunately’ low.
Infection rates have soared in recent weeks amid a stalled vaccination campaign, with only 35 per cent of the country fully inoculated despite several widely available vaccines including Sputnik V.
Putin said he was surprised by how many Russians were refusing the vaccine, even among his ‘close friends’.
“It’s strange. People with a good education, scientific degrees... I just don’t understand what is happening.”
Putin has made numerous pleas for Russians to get COVID-19 jabs, and on Wednesday once again called on people to get immunised.
“Please, show responsibility,” he said.
On Wednesday, the country recorded over 34,000 new virus cases and a total of 226,353 fatalities - the highest death toll on the European continent.
Russian authorities have been accused of vastly downplaying the scale of the pandemic, and Putin told regional authorities not to under-report the number of virus cases, calling it ‘dangerous’.
Putin has introduced paid holidays during coronavirus peaks before, most recently in May. The new non-working week will coincide with national school holidays.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said the new restrictions were tough but necessary.
“Recently, we have been losing more than a thousand of our citizens a day. These are terrible figures,” she said. She asked Russians not to travel between regions so as not to ‘worsen’ the situation.
The Russian leader insists that the country has handled the pandemic better than most countries, but even top officials have recently voiced concern.
Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy chairman of parliament’s lower house, said at the weekend that the authorities had ‘completely lost’ an information campaign on COVID-19. “There is no trust in people to go and vaccinate themselves, it is a fact,” he said.
The holidays were announced a day after Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered the capital’s first coronavirus restrictions since the summer.
He told unvaccinated over60s in Moscow to work from home and extended mandatory vaccinations for service workers. Those restrictions take effect next Monday and are set to last until the end of February.
Sobyanin also told employers to move 30 per cent of their staff to home working.