Coronavirus hostel: a third of patients with COVID-19 in the Leningrad Region were infected in one hostel

The first cases were found on April 10 during a raid by the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare. They didn’t hospitalize anyone, but, according to the regional prosecutor’s office, “a number of people were ordered to observe quarantine measures in the form of self-isolation.”

Alas, the authorities did not immediately check how the order was being implemented. As a result, migrants continued to go to work and live for 8-10 people in a room.

“After conducting repeated studies in the indicated house (hostel. -  RT ), additional cases of infection of the residents with a coronavirus infection were revealed,” the prosecutor’s message said.

Now the regional Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case under part 1 of art. 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules, resulting in negligence of a mass disease or poisoning of people or creating a threat of such consequences). The neglect of security measures has infected many people. No charges have been formally charged to anyone yet, but law enforcement officers believe that “employees of a legal entity” who hired them and settled in a hostel should monitor the isolation of sick labor migrants. Guilty faces imprisonment for up to two years.

Who else might be infected

The hotel where guest workers live is surrounded by a brick fence. Regional authorities decided not to resettle migrants, but to leave them in their former place. In the courtyard of the hostel, the local Ministry of Emergency Situations put up large tents to unload the crowded rooms.

“Now our task is to localize the virus, so everyone remains in one place. One person was hospitalized with complications. With isolated migrants there is always a paramedic. If necessary, the hostel is visited by doctors from the nearest Vsevolzhskaya hospital. Most infected people can easily transfer the coronavirus, ”said Irina Safonkina, spokeswoman for the governor and government of the Leningrad Region, in an interview with RT.

Now the hostel is constantly patrolled by the police. The authorities do not want any of the infected migrants to escape. The regional administration instructed the employer to feed the isolated migrant workers.

“Patients (all 485 people. -  RT ) were divided into three groups. In the first group, those with coronavirus confirmed. In the second - people whose test results for COVID-19 are not yet, but already have symptoms of SARS. In the third group are people who do not get sick, but who have been in contact with infected people and may be infected. Each of the three groups is monitored by their doctors, and they do not communicate with each other, ”said Anna Shkolyarenko, deputy chief physician of the Vsevolozhsk hospital.

The administration of Vsevolozhsk district RT reported that the "coronavirus hostel" is rented by an international construction company. Hired migrants until recently worked in a large shopping center in St. Petersburg, 2.5 km from Novosergievka. Migrant workers cleaned the premises. In the shopping center, pharmacies, grocery stores and points for issuing orders of household appliance stores are still open. Now the authorities are checking whether there are any patients with coronavirus among the employees of the shopping center.

How to isolate entire settlements

The administration of the Leningrad Region did not isolate the entire Novosergievka, despite almost 500 potential carriers of coronavirus. But many regions act differently. In Primorye, the authorities quarantined the entire village of Podyapolskoye because of only two cases.

The woman and her adult son returned to the Far East from the Moscow region, where they visited relatives. Both spent seven days in quarantine - upon arrival, the Far East felt ill, the woman had signs of SARS. When the condition improved, the family returned to work in their own grocery store. Now mother and son are in the infectious disease ward, and more than 50 residents of Podyapolsky have been tested for coronavirus.

In Yakutia, in the city of Aldan, a strict quarantine was introduced because of one person who arrived with a coronavirus from Moscow. The sick man went to work, despite the temperature, after which COVID-19 was found in several more people who had contact with him.