Moscow (AFP)
The city of Moscow announced on Tuesday health restrictions, the first since the summer, in the face of the surge in cases and deaths of Covid-19, the Kremlin reflecting on national measures to stem the spread of the virus.
This wave due to the Delta variant worsens after a previous outbreak in the summer.
It is amplified by a sluggish vaccination campaign and random compliance with distancing measures in the absence of strict restrictions.
"The number of people hospitalized for serious cases also increases with each passing day", wrote the mayor of the capital, Sergei Sobyanin, ordering "urgent measures" to protect the most vulnerable categories, in particular the elderly.
The Moscow authorities have ordered the compulsory vaccination of 80% of service employees, against 60% currently, by January 1, 2022, the confinement of all unvaccinated over 60 years of age from October 25 to February 25 and the teleworking of "at least 30%" of company staff.
These are the first restrictions ordered in Moscow since those gradually lifted from the end of July.
In June, the capital had a week off to curb the disease then it introduced a health pass for a few weeks, very unpopular and weighing on the economy.
But Russia recorded a new record on Tuesday with 1,015 new deaths from Covid in 24 hours, bringing the government's death toll to 225,325, the heaviest in Europe.
This number is however largely underestimated, the national agency of statistics Rosstat having counted more than 400,000 victims at the end of August.
In this context, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Health, Tatiana Golikova, asked to declare unemployed throughout the country for the week of October 30 to November 7.
President Vladimir Putin could decide the issue as early as Wednesday.
For the regions hardest hit by the epidemic, this measure could even come into force on October 23, according to Ms. Golikova.
Mr Putin has in the past decreed such holidays on several occasions, and Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustine said he was in favor on Tuesday.
- 35% vaccinated -
The Kremlin has always preferred this measure, intended to limit the movement of people and therefore the virus, to preserve the economy, rather than confine the population.
Russian presidency spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called on the Russians to be "more responsible" and get vaccinated, while less than 35% of the population is fully immune amid widespread mistrust of serums produced by Russia.
"We are used to blaming the state for everything," Peskov told reporters.
"But at the same time, the position of the country's citizens must be more responsible."
He admitted, however, that the authorities had not done enough to explain to the Russians that "vaccination has no alternative".
"Now is the time for all of us to show civic responsibility," he said.
Transfer of a covid patient to the Kommunarka hospital in Moscow, October 15, 2021 Dimitar DILKOFF AFP
According to independent polls, more than half of Russians do not plan to be vaccinated.
Before Moscow, several regions reintroduced the obligation to present a health pass to access public places.
On Monday, Saint Petersburg, the country's second city, announced the establishment of such a certificate from November 1 to access sporting or cultural events bringing together more than 40 people, and from December 1 to restaurants and to stores.
© 2021 AFP