The Russian healthcare system turned out to be better prepared for the situation with the spread of coronavirus than similar systems in many countries of the world.

This statement was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to the ambulance station in Pushkin.

The head of state congratulated the employees on their professional holiday - the Day of the Ambulance Worker, established in 2020 - and noted the advantages of the domestic health care system: “We have a good level of training, starting with the junior, middle level ... a really good level of training.

Second, we have a polyclinic network, which is not available in other countries ”.

“Our system turned out to be more stable and better prepared, it turned out to be more mobile and more flexible ... And they reacted very quickly, relatively quickly.

As the situation demanded, "RIA Novosti quotes Putin.

The President also drew attention to the fact that the industry's response to the coronavirus pandemic was also prompt.

In turn, the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that experts do not record the beginning of the third wave of the pandemic in Russia.

According to him, the headquarters daily publishes relevant information on the epidemic situation in the country, and there are no alternative, closed statistics on coronavirus.

“There can be no question of any other,“ second accounting ”.

Other statements are absurd and not true, - said Peskov.

"You see the numbers, they are available to everyone."

So he commented on the publication of the Bloomberg agency, in which, with reference to some "unofficial government statistics", it was argued that the third wave of the pandemic had begun in Russia.

The federal operational headquarters to combat the spread of coronavirus said: "It is absolutely wrong to talk about the beginning of the third wave of COVID-19 in Russia at this point in time - the epidemiological situation today remains stable and is under full control."

During the briefing, Peskov also spoke about the progress of the vaccination campaign against coronavirus in Russia, commenting on the data cited the other day by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova: about 12 million Russians received at least one dose of the vaccine, 7.5 million are fully vaccinated.

According to him, the rate of vaccination will increase.

“At the moment, the rate of vaccination is absolutely in line with the demand of the population.

All regions are provided with vaccines, and, of course, we expect that over time the demand for these vaccines will grow and thus the rate of vaccination will increase, ”said Peskov.

He added that the level of natural immunization of those who have already had coronavirus should also be taken into account.

Over the past day, 7,848 cases of coronavirus were detected in Russia (this is the minimum daily indicator for the number of confirmed cases since the end of September 2020).

Also, over the past day, 8,420 people have recovered, 387 have died from complications that developed against the background of COVID-19 and concomitant diseases.

In total, 4 787 273 cases of coronavirus have been detected in the Russian Federation since the beginning of the pandemic.

4,411,098 people recovered, 109,367 deaths were recorded.

266,808 cases (5.57%) remain active.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, over the entire observation period, more than 128.5 million laboratory tests for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were carried out, including 251 thousand in the last day.

More than 504 thousand people remain under medical supervision.

Meanwhile, the head of the department, Anna Popova, said that specialists are tracking almost six times more contacts in those infected with new strains of the virus compared to patients with conventional SARS-CoV-2 variants.

According to her, "with the usual reference strain," experts monitor an average of four people who have had contact with the sick person.

This is due to the level of contagiousness (infectiousness) of the coronavirus.

“For new strains with mutations, we have 23 such contacts on average per infected person,” TASS quotes an excerpt from Popova's speech at the online congress “Molecular Diagnostics and Biosafety 2021. COVID-19: Epidemiology, Diagnostics, Prevention”.

It became known yesterday that new strains of coronavirus have been identified in more than 50 Russian regions.

According to Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Tatyana Golikova, a British strain was found in 48 subjects, a South African strain in 11, and 22 strains that circulate in the Russian Federation, but have individual mutations in relation to the reference strain.

The effectiveness of "Sputnik V"

Earlier in India, a new strain of SARS-CoV-2 with a triple mutation was identified.

According to preliminary data from WHO, it contains mutations that can affect the effectiveness of antibodies who have been ill or vaccinated against COVID-19.

Against this background, the country continues to aggravate the situation with the incidence of coronavirus (over the previous day, more than 360 thousand cases were detected).

The developers of the first Russian vaccine against COVID-19, Sputnik V, claim that the drug will be effective against Indian strains of the virus.

"The Sputnik V vaccine will also be effective against Indian mutations, because double vaccination with Sputnik V gives a high titer of protective immunoglobulins, even if the antigen is changed," said Alexander Gunzburg, head of the Gamaleya Center.

Note that on the eve of "Sputnik V" was registered in Bangladesh, which became the 62nd country in the world that issued a permit for the use of the drug.

Countries already using the vaccine are reporting its effectiveness.

In particular, the head of the Mexican Foreign Ministry Marcelo Ebrard told RT about this.

The regulator of this Latin American country approved the use of the drug in February, and the production of the Russian vaccine in Mexico will start in May.

Ebrard said the Mexican authorities are pleased with the Sputnik V results.

Packaging of the Russian vaccine will begin soon in the country, the diplomat noted.

“The process of packaging the vaccine in Mexico is about to begin, and we hope that this will happen as soon as possible.

We are moving forward, working closely with the Gamaleya Center and the Russian Direct Investment Fund to start the process as soon as possible, ”he said.