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  • Protagonists of the coronavirus.Serguei Sobianin, Putin's valid counterpart to the pandemic

Russia woke up this Thursday with a record of contagions: 11,231 new cases in one day . This brings the total balance to 177,160 officially declared cases and places Russia among the most positive countries in the world: the fifth after the US, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. The new cases represent an increase of 6.8% compared to the previous day, after being consolidated at the beginning of the month around 10,000 new cases a day.

Moscow, which is the focus of contagion in Russia, today ordered the extension of the measures of confinement of the population until May 31. The decision has chilled the mood of 12 million Muscovites, who a week ago heard local authorities say the situation was under control. In Moscow, 6,703 new cases have been detected in one day , bringing the total number of infected people in the capital to 92,676, 52% of all infections in the entire country. Since the start of the month, local statistics have been around 5,000 new cases every day, but today Moscow has risen another step.

The mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobianin, has once again tightened the measures. The use of masks and gloves will be mandatory in transport and other public places in the Russian capital and the rule that requires the processing of a digital permit to move around the city by private or public transport will continue to apply. The only light at the end of the tunnel is for industry and construction in the capital, which will be able to return to work from May 12.

Sobianin, who since the beginning of the crisis has stood out for having a more realistic approach to the pandemic, today put the number of those infected with the coronavirus in the Russian capital at 300,000 compared to the 92,676 that the statistical data shows, and warned that normality "will not return soon". He even suggested that the confinement regime could last until July , depending on the epidemic situation. "If before we thought that the situation will be overcome in a few weeks, a month or a month and a half, now we see that it will take more time to overcome the epidemic," said the councilman.

"If this first stage of relaxation of the restrictions is successful, then the probability of quickly reaching a second stage will increase," wrote the mayor of Moscow on his website, calling for "strict" respect for the containment measures. Muscovites have been out of the house since March 28 except to shop, throw garbage, or go to the doctor.

Low mortality rate

Despite the bad data, Sobianin was pleased that at least the number of hospitalizations for Covid-19 has not increased in Moscow in the past two weeks. Figures in Russia also show that mortality is strangely low : only 1,625 deaths, 88 in the last day. That represents a rate of around 0.9%: by far the lowest among the ten countries most affected by the pandemic: Germany, for example, has a death rate of 4.2%. This mismatch in percentages has generated new doubts about the official Russian statistics, to which Sobianin himself has been expressing his reservations since last month. The Ministry of Health and the health agency Rospotrebnadzor justify these results by emphasizing the rapidity of the Russian reaction to the epidemic. Rospotrebnadzor explained that "Russia ranks second in the world in number of tests: more than 4.46 million," according to AFP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed yesterday that from May 12 the regions will be able to take measures for the exit of the confinement adapted to the epidemiological situation of each of them, since there are imbalances of one or two weeks regarding the advance of the virus in each area of ​​the country. But the coronavirus also affects the popularity of the president . Acceptance of Vladimir Putin has dropped to a minimum during the COVID-19 crisis: only 59%, according to the independent pollster Centro Levada. In 2018 it reached 80%. The current is Putin's worst approval figure since September 1999, when he was an almost unknown prime minister under the dying Boris Yeltsin presidency and had only 53% support. This news comes on the 20th anniversary of his first inauguration as president after winning his first elections in 2000.

The Kremlin has relativized these figures, which despite everything are still better than those of many politicians in Western countries: "There are other polls that paint a different picture," said the president's spokesman. Worse is the Russian government, headed by the infection of its prime minister and with two new members of the Cabinet who have joined the coronavirus casualties.

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