Two items from among the orders of the President of Russia published on January 14 concerning the finalization of the bill on the introduction of covid certificates will be canceled.

This was reported to journalists by the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov.

The relevant tasks were set following the results of the congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, held on December 17, 2021.

Peskov explained that such lists of instructions are formed and agreed upon within a few weeks: “They prepared something, but circumstances have changed since then.”

“Do you remember that at the end of last week Golikova's colleague ... said that the government had decided to postpone this bill. This is due to the fact that the epidemiological circumstances have really changed. This, in turn, was provoked by a new wave, which is now actively beginning, the “omicron” wave, new characteristics of this strain, new dynamics of the spread of the disease and a new mode of the course of this disease in the majority of those infected. Therefore, we will, of course, remove and cancel these first and second points. The working situation is that we act flexibly, taking into account the circumstances, ”Peskov said.

The points mentioned concerned the need to take into account “all possible life situations” when implementing the so-called law on QR codes and assessing its impact on the activities of various sectors of the economy, and the government was instructed to ensure the readiness of the infrastructure and technologies necessary for the implementation of new norms.

On January 14, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced the decision to postpone consideration in the second reading of the draft law on QR codes in public places.

A number of amendments will be made to the document.

Also on russian.rt.com “Requires improvement”: consideration of the draft law on QR codes in public places has been postponed

Over the past day, 30,726 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have been detected in Russia, more than 16% of them had no clinical manifestations.

Also, 19,756 people fully recovered in the country, 670 patients died.

The largest number of new episodes was recorded in Moscow (7529), St. Petersburg (4132), Moscow region (3388) and Krasnodar region (718).

In all other subjects of the Russian Federation, the number of new cases did not exceed 540.

The total number of coronavirus cases registered in the country has reached 10,834,260. Since the beginning of the pandemic, 9,878,371 people have recovered in Russia, and 321,990 patients have died from complications.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, more than 246.8 million laboratory tests for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have been carried out in the Russian Federation.

More than 939 thousand people remain under medical supervision.

Commenting on the increase in the incidence rate, the presidential press secretary noted that the Kremlin does not see the need to distribute any additional instructions regarding the actions of the regions in the current situation.

According to Peskov, this is redundant, since both Vladimir Putin and members of the government are in constant contact with the leadership of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

“No one has canceled special powers, so everyone acts, first of all, with an eye to what is happening specifically on the ground, in a particular subject of the Russian Federation.

This is how it is happening, so there is no need for any additional actions, they are already being carried out, ”the Kremlin spokesman said.

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In turn, Alexander Gorelov, Deputy Director for Research at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, in an interview with RIA Novosti, noted that Russians should not count on a quick end to the rise in the incidence, because usually this period lasts at least a month.

“We are in different phases of the infectious process of the epidemic compared to our foreign colleagues.

Let me remind you that in the classics of the genre, the growth phase lasts at least 30-45 days.

Our growth began on Wednesday last week, so it is not possible to hope that we, by analogy with our foreign colleagues, will complete this process without starting to grow.

Indeed, the fears are the most serious, ”said the specialist.

According to the forecast of specialists from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation of the University of Washington Medical School, Russia will peak in the number of cases of COVID-19 in the first week of February.

So, scientists expect that on February 3-5, the daily increase in new cases of the disease may exceed 85 thousand, after which it will decline.

Alexander Gorelov also pointed out that the disease with the Omicron strain is most easily tolerated by those who have been vaccinated or have recently been re-vaccinated.

According to him, the “ice of distrust” towards vaccination in Russia is gradually melting, but the pace of the vaccination campaign should be higher.

According to the latest data from the operational headquarters (as of January 14), the level of herd immunity in the country is 63.7%.

“Ideally, we would have to approach this point to 80% in order to form herd immunity.

Perhaps the World Health Organization will make some adjustments, and this figure will be increased due to the fact that the new circulating strain has unique properties, namely, a greater infectious ability, ”Gorelov explained.

In turn, the director of the Gamaleya Center, Alexander Gintsburg, urged not to treat "omicron" as a "live vaccine", since any strain of SARS-CoV-2 is such, but it is impossible to predict the consequences of a disease transferred "on the legs".

“No one will say what the consequences of such a “vaccination” will be, in contrast to the vaccination with Sputnik, the safety of which has long been proven.

Because complications from a live vaccine are different, up to death, ”TASS quotes him as saying.