Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Tatyana Golikova said that it was decided to postpone consideration in the second reading of the bill, which provides for the introduction of a single certificate when visiting public places.

According to her, a number of amendments will be made to the document that introduces changes to the federal law “On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population”.

In particular, persons who do not have a QR code will be able to visit public places after February 1 on the basis of a negative PCR test result.

The Ministry of Health will have the authority to determine the validity period of a COVID-certificate for those who have a medical exemption from vaccination.

And the military and persons equated to them will be issued documents on immunization in compliance with data protection requirements.

“The bill that we adopted in the first reading was prepared as a response to the spread of the delta strain, now there will be new challenges.

Therefore... in conditions of high uncertainty in the development of the epidemiological situation, we have developed a joint decision on the advisability of postponing the consideration of the bill in the second reading," Golikova said, pointing to the situation with the spread of the Omicron strain in the country and in the world.

  • Tatyana Golikova - about the decision to finalize the bill of QR codes in public places

In turn, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Andrei Turchak also stated that the decision to postpone consideration of the bill was due to the spread of the omicron strain.

“Now all forces should be concentrated on the most important task - helping citizens, pensioners, people living alone, families with many children,” Turchak is quoted by TASS.

The head of the Federation Council committee on constitutional legislation, Andrey Klishas, ​​in an interview with RIA Novosti, stressed that the draft law on QR codes should be discussed in the most detailed way, since it affects the rights and freedoms of citizens.

The chairman of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, expressed confidence that the deputies would support the decision to postpone consideration of the legislative initiative.

This issue will be considered by the State Duma Council on Monday, January 17.

“The bill needs to be finalized, I want to say thanks to government representatives that they understand this,” he wrote in his Telegram channel.

Recall that the bill on QR codes in public places was approved in the first reading on December 16, 2021. The document regulates visits by citizens to places of public events, cultural institutions, catering and retail facilities upon presentation of a vaccination QR code, a document confirming that a person has been ill with coronavirus, or a medical exemption from vaccination. It was assumed that without the appropriate documents it would be possible to visit pharmacies and shops selling groceries and essential goods.

After that, Vladimir Putin asked the government, together with parliament, employers' associations, entrepreneurs, and civil society, to finalize the law.

According to the head of state, the QR code system should work to protect the health of citizens, and not create unnecessary difficulties for them: “The law must be clear, understandable and understandable.”

COVID-19 statistics in Russia

In Russia, over the past day, 23,820 new cases of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were detected - the maximum since December 25, 2021 (then the daily increase was 24,946), and almost 15% of them had no clinical manifestations.

Also in the country, 24,952 people fully recovered, 739 patients died.

The largest number of new episodes over the past day was recorded in Moscow (5712), St. Petersburg (2708), Moscow (1990), Nizhny Novgorod (743) and Sverdlovsk (536) regions.

The total number of coronavirus cases registered in the country has reached 10,747,125. Since the start of the pandemic, 9,809,300 people have recovered in Russia, and 319,911 patients have died.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, more than 245.4 million laboratory tests for the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus have been carried out in the country.

More than 880 thousand people remain under medical supervision.

The Moscow operational headquarters for the fight against coronavirus reported that 744 people were hospitalized in Moscow per day, 69 patients died.

There are 497 people on ventilators.

During the day, 2888 more patients recovered in the city.

“The total number of people who have recovered from the infection has increased to 1,902,438,” the report says.

Russia ranks sixth in the world in terms of the number of detected cases of coronavirus.

More than 320.6 million cases have been recorded since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University, most in the US (64 million), India (36.5 million), Brazil (22.8 million), the UK (15 million) and France (13.3 million).

More than 5.5 million people worldwide have died from complications related to COVID-19.

The largest number of victims was registered in the USA (846.5 thousand), Brazil (620.8 thousand) and India (485.3 thousand).