● Moscow in lockdown,
The Russian capital, Moscow, on Monday woke up to a lockdown obliging most of its 13 million residents to stay home, and many other regions of the vast country quickly followed suit to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.
A stern-looking President Vladimir Putin warned his envoys in Russia’s far-flung regions that they will be personally responsible for the availability of beds, ventilators, and other key equipment.
“We have managed to win time and slow down an explosive spread of the disease in the previous weeks, and we need to use that time reserve to the fullest,” Putin said.
Russia so far has been relatively spared by the outbreak, with 1,836 confirmed cases and nine deaths, but the number of people testing positive has risen quickly in recent days and authorities are bracing for the worst.
Putin has declared that only people employed by essential sectors should work this week, leaving it to regional authorities to spell out the details.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin followed up by ordering Muscovites to stay home starting Monday except for medical emergencies and runs to nearby shops. He said the city will issue special passes for those who need to keep working and track all others with electronic surveillance.
“We will steadily tighten controls,” Sobyanin told a Cabinet meeting. “I hope that by the week’s end we will have information systems allowing us to fully control citizens’ movements and prevent possible violations.”
On Tuesday, the Russian parliament is scheduled to approve a bill that imposes prison terms of up to seven years and fines of about $25,000 — a huge sum in a country where an average monthly salary hovers around $500 — on violators of the lockdown.
Moscow has a sprawling system of surveillance cameras complete with facialrecognition technology, which were tested during anti-Kremlin rallies last year to track down protesters.
City authorities have also used cellphone location data from mobile providers to monitor those who were ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks after arriving from abroad.
Elsewhere, hard-hit Italy and Spain saw their death tolls climb by more than 800 each.
Bells tolled in Madrid’s deserted central square and flags were lowered in a day of mourning as Spain raced to build field hospitals to treat an onslaught of patients. The death toll topped 7,300.
More than three-quarters of a million people worldwide have become infected and more than 37,000 have died, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.
Italy’s death toll climbed to nearly 11,600. But in a bit of positive news, newly released numbers showed a continued slowdown in the rate of new confirmed cases and a record number of people recovered.
“We are saving lives by staying at home, by maintaining social distance, by traveling less, and by closing schools,” said Dr. Luca Richeldi, a lung specialist.
At least six of Spain’s 17 regions were at their limit of intensive care unit beds, and three more were close to it, authorities said. Crews of workers were frantically building more field hospitals.
Nearly 15% of all those infected in Spain, almost 13,000 people, are healthcare workers, hurting hospitals’ efforts to help the tsunami of people gasping for breath.