Recently, those infected with coronavirus in Moscow are not suffering from the original, Wuhan strain, but a new, more aggressive mutation SARS-CoV-2.
This significantly complicates the situation and the fight against the epidemic.
Mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin spoke about this during a meeting with entrepreneurs in the catering sector.
“Unfortunately, what we fought last year, the Chinese virus, the Wuhan, is practically nonexistent in Moscow today.
A new mutation has come, a new strain is working.
It is more aggressive, more difficult to tolerate, spreads faster.
It penetrates much more human immunity, "TASS quotes Sobyanin.
The mayor stressed that this new challenge is complicating the epidemic and economic situation.
Due to the fact that the new strain causes a more severe course of the disease, the number of hospitalizations is growing, which means more beds and hospitals will be required, the mayor stated.
According to Sobyanin, five days ago there were about 13 thousand beds in the capital for the treatment of patients with coronavirus, which have already been completely filled.
During this period, the authorities commissioned about 3 thousand more beds, but every day 200-300 beds are filled.
"In two days, the capacity of such a hospital as Kommunarka is" eaten up ", - said the mayor.
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© Sergey Pyatakov
He explained that if this dynamics of hospitalizations continues, the authorities will be forced to withdraw more and more hospitals from normal operation and repurpose them to fight the coronavirus.
“The question is not just about beds, this is resuscitation, resuscitation specialists, this is treatment.
This is not just spreading the beds and putting the patients to bed, there is no point in this, people need to be treated ... We are holding on today because Moscow has concentrated, accumulated experience and created the most powerful medical system among cities, ”the mayor emphasized.
Sobyanin said that to date, 17 thousand beds have been deployed in the capital to treat citizens with COVID-19, and soon their number will exceed 20 thousand, which "practically no European city can afford."
“But I will say again that these are not endless possibilities anyway, we are very close to tougher decisions - temporary, but harsh decisions on restrictions,” Sobyanin concluded.
During the meeting, the mayor drew attention to a sharp increase in the number of detected cases of coronavirus in the capital.
He announced preliminary data, according to which on Friday, June 18, 9 thousand recorded cases of the disease in Moscow per day will be announced.
"We did not have such an indicator (the maximum fell on December 24, when the coronavirus was confirmed in 8203 people in Moscow. -
RT
), and it is very bad that a large percentage of newly diagnosed people are people who are hospitalized literally within a few days." - he explained.
During the meeting, the mayor recalled that a decision had been made in the capital on compulsory vaccination of workers in the service sector, trade and public catering.
The mayor added that without this difficult decision, it will not be possible to bring down the wave of morbidity.
In turn, restaurateurs suggested Sobyanin to conduct an experiment and create public areas free from coronavirus.
According to their proposal, only vaccinated employees would work in such zones, and at the entrance there would be organized a check of documents from visitors confirming the passage of vaccination or the presence of a negative PCR test.
"The situation is rapidly deteriorating"
Sobyanin also spoke about the significant increase in the number of coronavirus cases recorded in Moscow during the meeting of the coordination council under the government of the Russian Federation to combat the spread of COVID-19, which took place on Thursday.
The mayor drew attention to the fact that such a dynamic is quite unexpected, since more than 60% of Muscovites have either been ill or vaccinated.
“The situation in Moscow regarding the spread of the incidence of COVID-19 is rapidly deteriorating ... We are most likely faced with new strains, more aggressive and rapidly spreading.
Therefore, you need to understand that our situation today is simply different.
And it requires other solutions, ”the mayor said.
According to him, the number of registrations for vaccination against coronavirus in the city has tripled, but this is still not enough.
At the same time, he expressed the opinion that the volume of vaccinations will increase every day.
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© Maxim Bogodvid
The head of the Ministry of Health, Mikhail Murashko, also speaking at a meeting of the coordinating council, said that over the past week, the number of detected cases of coronavirus infection has increased by 30% on average in the country.
The growth in the number of hospitalizations in Russia amounted to 32.5%, while the authorities increased the number of beds in the country from 102 thousand to 127 thousand.
“The peculiarity of the present period is that we see the greatest increase in the number of cases in the population of 30-40 years.
In this category, the number of cases increased to over 40%, ”said Murashko.
“The number of patients in intensive care units has also increased.
We have enough reserve resuscitation bed fund.
But the load on the intensive care units has increased, ”he said.
At the same time, Murashko stressed that, according to the monitoring of the effectiveness of immunity in vaccinated patients, which is carried out by the department, the regions that have reached the maximum figures for vaccinations are better protected today.
“Therefore, the vaccination campaign should be continued,” the minister stated.
The head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova also described the situation with coronavirus in Russia as extremely tense.
She stressed that the maximum increase in the incidence is observed in two age groups: 18-29 years old and 30-49 years old.
Popova drew attention to the fact that these age categories are an active able-bodied population with a large number of communications and “completely neglecting those requirements” that specialists have been prescribing over the past year and a half.
“Undoubtedly, the growth, which has begun and is spreading, is associated with a violation of the requirements, which we are tirelessly talking about,” - confirmed the head of Rospotrebnadzor.
At the same time, she said that now older people are less sick, since the proportion of vaccinated people among this age group is the highest in the country.
This, Popova stressed, is another important argument in favor of immunization.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin also spoke about the need to increase the rate of vaccination.
He recalled that free vaccination for everyone is organized in every region.
“While in other countries there are queues and are ready to pay big money or go abroad to get vaccinated, our citizens have such an opportunity. I repeat once again: free of charge and throughout the country. Russian vaccines have proven their effectiveness not only in our country, but also abroad, ”the prime minister added.