All About Record-Breaking Coronavirus Cases in Russia!

The whole world is struggling with the coronavirus pandemic and its challenges. Many countries and nations impose stricter restrictions while other countries are easing off many of their restrictions to revive their lost economy. The coronavirus and its variants are posing newer challenges not only to the scientists, researchers, and medical practitioners, but the common people are also affected in many ways. Vaccinations, masking, social distancing, and sanitizing have become the new norms of society.

All About Record-Breaking Coronavirus Cases in Russia

While many countries have started to see a downward decline in coronavirus cases, others like Russia are currently going through the worst phase of the third wave of the pandemic, with daily counts increasing by tenfold from previous months. This is as opposed to just 17000 daily new cases, a few weeks ago. There is a steep decline in hospitalization in 71 regions of the country while 13 regions showed a rise in hospitalization cases.

The considerable increase in omicron cases is attributed to the highly infectious and most dominant variant of the coronavirus.

The increasing count comes even though about half of Russia’s population have been fully vaccinated and many of them have already received the booster shot. The death rates, however, have remained constant since the past week. The hospitalization rates however have also not increased, according to healthcare officials.

No talks are going on for any lockdowns or any other newer restrictions. Restrictions are already in place for children, as they seem to be the worst effect in the third wave. Moreover, the Russian government has lifted off the policy of seven days of self-isolation for primary contacts to Covid-19 patients since it did not show any improvement in the number of infected cases during the spread of the omicron variant. Earlier, the self-isolation period was 14 days for those who reported positive to Covid-19 tests or those who encountered Covid-19 patients.

Russia, by far, remains amongst the very few nations to have the least lockdown, of only 6 weeks in 2020. Apart from a week away from work during October 2021, life in the country has been normal for the citizens. However, the current trend of omicron variants, which seemed different from earlier variants and found affecting the younger generations, has compelled the country to bring several restrictions for children under 18 years of age in the current week. Several areas of the country have preferred remote schooling or declaring extended holidays to avoid spreading the infection among children. Even a few areas have restrictions for minors to curb the spread of the virus.

In addition to various restrictions, Russia has also initiated vaccination of children between the age of 12 to 17 with a smaller dose of Sputnik M Jab developed by their scientists. The composition of Sputnik M Jab which is like Sputnik V meant for adults.

All enterprises are requested to reduce their headcounts at their workplace and encourage remote working by the Labor Ministry. The government has asked to avoid mass gatherings, and few areas have suspended regular medical checkups to avoid the spread of the infection. Children have been barred from visiting sporting complexes, cultural arenas, and entertainment establishments to avoid getting infected.

The rapid spread of the infectious Omicron variant of Covid-19 in Russia has also drawn attention to the recent Russian-Africa Summit scheduled in 2022. The date and venue of hosting the summit is yet to be decided by the government. However, the fact of holding the meeting through video conference is not ruled out.