Faced with Covid-19, Moscow lifts most restrictions

Covid-19 restrictions in Moscow are eased following a drop in the number of daily cases (Illustrative image).

© KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP

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3 min

Many countries including France are considering new containment measures to fight Covid-19.

But in Moscow, on the contrary, we are witnessing a reduction in measures.

The mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin, announced this Wednesday, January 27 due to the drop in the number of daily cases.

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In Moscow, bars and restaurants will be able to remain open after 11 p.m., and the obligation to telework for 30% of the city's employees will now be lifted.

With this new series of announcements, the mayor of Moscow is on the way to lifting most of the restrictions imposed on the city's residents in the fall of 2020. The Russian capital is returning to an almost normal life, after having escaped confinement despite a second very virulent wave.

Only the wearing of masks in offices and public places is maintained, as well as the restrictions imposed on students, which can be lifted during the month of February.

Last week, the city authorities had already authorized the reopening of colleges, kindergartens or sports schools, as well as museums or libraries.

Another easing measure adopted last week: the increase from 25% to 50% of the public in theaters or cinemas.

Number of contaminations decreasing

For the mayor of Moscow, this return to normal is made possible by the drop in the daily number of contaminations: less than 3,000 in the capital in recent days.

Sergei Sobyanin also affirms that, for the first time since June, more than half of hospital beds dedicated to the disease are unoccupied in the capital.

The mayor of Moscow evokes a "

 common victory 

" against the pandemic, but he calls on the inhabitants of the city to remain vigilant.

In the rest of the country, the decline in the number of patients has also started, and it has fallen below the mark of 20,000 daily cases.

But the official number of deaths remains constant, around 500 per day.

This figure is also largely underestimated because of the restrictive criteria used by Russia to count the number of deaths in the country.

It would actually be two to three times higher by the admission of Rostat, the Russian statistics agency.

►Also read: Covid-19: Russia is expanding access to vaccination to its entire population

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