The Russian capital recorded 9,056 new cases of Covid-19 in twenty-four hours, a record since the start of the epidemic, and Russia, with 17,262 contaminations, is the highest since February 1, according to statistics released on Friday.

The country has also recorded 453 additional deaths, a peak since March 18, and Moscow deplores 78 new deaths, according to these data from the Russian government.

Cause of this epidemic resurgence: a vaccination campaign that is slipping, the Russians are overwhelmingly suspicious of the vaccines developed in the country, the absence of restrictions for months, the emergence of one or more more virulent variants and the non-compliance rules for distancing and wearing a mask.

New restrictions

As a result, the Russian capital announced on Friday to restrict public events, including closing its Euro football fan-zone, measures despite everything limited, the authorities striving to preserve the economy. Russia hosts a total of seven Euro football matches, all in Saint Petersburg (northeast), the country's second city, where the epidemic has also returned. “I didn't want to do it but I have to. From today, entertainment events are limited to a maximum of 1,000 people, ”Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced.

The mayor of Moscow has also extended until June 29 the closure, decreed last weekend, of eating places in shopping malls, zoos as well as all public park facilities, such as playgrounds and sports equipment.

Restaurants and bars will have to close from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., as was already the case for a week.

The mayor, however, decided to end the non-working period decreed from June 15 to 20 to curb the epidemic.

Vaccination compulsory for certain categories

Sergei Sobyanin on Wednesday decreed compulsory vaccination for all employees in the service sector. Some 60% of them, or about two million people, are due by August 15. In Saint Petersburg, restrictive measures remain limited and the wearing of masks quite uncertain, while the city welcomes tens of thousands of football fans for the Euro.

For nearly a year, the state apparatus and the public media have been highlighting the proper management of the health crisis by the authorities and the prowess of Sputnik V, a vaccine developed by Russia and available for more than six months. But the Russians did not go to be vaccinated despite repeated appeals from the government, President Vladimir Putin first, against a background of mistrust of a population scalded by decades of Soviet and then Russian propaganda and budget cuts in the field of health.

Since December, only 19.4 million Russians out of 146 million inhabitants have received at least one dose, according to the census of the Gogov site, which aggregates data from regions and media for lack of official national statistics.

In Moscow, 1.8 million people have received at least one injection, out of the 12 or 13 million inhabitants that the city officially has.

Russia became the most bereaved European country on Thursday, with 128,445 deaths recorded by the government.

The Russian statistics agency, Rosstat, which has a broader definition of Covid-related deaths, has recorded at least 270,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic.

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