Russia resumed normal life on Monday after a nationwide nonworking week decreed by authorities to stem the spread of the coronavirus, as the country continues to record tens of thousands of new contagions and more than a thousand deaths every day.

President Vladimir Putin has decreed a non-working period from October 30 to November 7 to break the chains of contamination in the country, the most bereaved in Europe.

In Moscow, the capital, as in most Russian cities, this measure notably involved the closure of cafes and restaurants, sports centers, beauty salons and stores of non-essential products.

The majority of Russian regions have decided not to extend these measures and only a few, including that of Novgorod (North-West) or Tomsk (Siberia), have opted for an extension of around one week.

New contamination record

Russia, however, recorded a new record of daily contamination on Saturday, with 41,335 new cases of coronavirus identified in 24 hours. A new record of daily deaths due to Covid - 1,195 - was established on Thursday, during the period of nonworking. On Monday, Russian authorities announced that they had officially identified 39,400 new cases in the last 24 hours and 1,190 deaths. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was "very early" on Monday to draw conclusions on the effect of the nonworking period. "It will only be clear in a week," he told reporters.

In Veliky Novgorod, where the non-working period was extended by local authorities until November 15, Antonina Leontieva, 75, welcomed this measure "correct" and "necessary" on Monday.

“Perhaps, there will be fewer patients and less contamination in a week,” this retired veterinarian told AFP.

For his part, Alexandre Vorotilov, 19, an employee of a delivery service, said he was “annoyed” by this extension, as well as by the recent establishment of a health pass to access public places in the region.

“This is all absurd!

», He denounced.

34% of Russians fully immune

Since the beginning of the autumn, the country has already broken records for daily contaminations and deaths due to Covid-19 several times, in the midst of the epidemic outbreak. After strict containment in spring 2020, the authorities refused to reconfine, despite new waves of epidemics, in order to limit the economic losses. The rapid spread of Covid-19 is also facilitated by the low vaccination rate of the Russian population, against a background of widespread mistrust of local sera.

Even though Russia has several vaccines of its own design, only 34% of the estimated 144 million Russians are fully immunized, according to official statistics.

In total, Russia has officially recorded 8,834,495 cases of coronavirus and 248,004 deaths to date.

According to the statistics agency Rosstat, which has a broader definition of deaths linked to the virus, the total toll of the pandemic in Russia, however, stood at nearly 450,000 deaths at the end of September.

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