The President of Russia instructed to finalize the bill on the introduction of COVID-certificates, paying special attention to the need to ensure strict observance of the rights of citizens and the importance of taking into account “all possible life situations” when implementing the proposed norms.

This is stated in the published list of instructions following the results of the December congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

The availability of documents confirming that a citizen has been ill with COVID-19, has been vaccinated, or has medical contraindications for vaccination should also be guaranteed.

“Pay special attention to the need to assess the impact of the implementation of the relevant federal law on the activities of organizations in various sectors of the economy,” reads a release published on the Kremlin’s website.

A corresponding task has been assigned to the government and both chambers of the Federal Assembly, which should involve associations of employers and members of the public in the work.

The deadline for submitting the report is January 30.

Recall, on the eve of Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova announced the decision to finalize the amendments to the Federal Law "On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population."

In particular, it is assumed that citizens without a QR code will be able to visit public places based on a negative PCR test after February 1, 2022.

Golikova explained that the bill adopted in the first reading was prepared as a response to the spread of the delta strain of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but an increase in the percentage of those infected with the Omicron strain poses new challenges.

New numbers

Over the past 24 hours, 27,179 new cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Russia.

This is the highest value since December 19, when the diagnosis was confirmed in 27,967 people in the country.

The number of people who recovered over the past day was 26,584. At the same time, 723 patients died from complications that developed against the background of COVID-19 and concomitant diseases.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 10,774,304 cases of coronavirus have been detected in the Russian Federation.

320,634 deaths (2.98%) were recorded, 9,835,884 people (91.29%) recovered.

Thus, almost 618 thousand diagnosed episodes of the disease remain active.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, over 245.9 million laboratory tests for a new type of coronavirus have been performed over the entire time, including 508 thousand per day.

More than 878 thousand people remain under medical supervision.

The capital's operational headquarters reports that 6,555 new cases of coronavirus infection have been detected in Moscow.

879 people were hospitalized, 68 patients died.

There are 509 people on mechanical ventilation in Moscow hospitals.

More than 500 new cases of COVID-19 were also recorded in St. Petersburg (3314), Moscow region (2589), Nizhny Novgorod (736) and Sverldlovsk (612) regions, Krasnodar Territory (561).

COVID antibody certificate

According to preliminary estimates, about 300 thousand Russians suffered from the coronavirus, having a confirmed PCR test, but without going to the doctors.

Such figures were given the day before by Tatyana Golikova during a joint briefing with Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko and head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova.

“Practically these same people at different times did tests for antibodies and made sure that they exist, which means that these people had the disease,” said Golikova.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the authorities propose to introduce the practice of issuing a certificate of a recovered person to such people - who had a positive PCR test, and then the disease was confirmed by an antibody test.

This category of citizens will be issued a QR code valid for a year after the PCR test.

The second category of patients who asymptomatically suffered the disease and then passed the antibody test will receive a certificate lasting six months from the date of the study.

“Why six months and not a year?

Because we do not know when a person has been ill.

And six months is the period of time that our experts recommend today in order to undergo either a second vaccination or vaccination after an illness, ”Golikova explained.

“This work is underway... We are testing our information systems for readiness to issue such documents.

And we assume that changes to the government decree and the relevant orders of the Ministry of Health and Rospotrebnadzor should be adopted, as we said, before February 1, 2022, ”she added.

  • Protsenko about the strain "omicron"

Incidence and rates of vaccination

According to Golikova, for five days of the second week of January, an increase in the incidence of coronavirus is recorded in 37 regions, and an excess of the average Russian incidence rate is observed in 21 subjects of the Federation.

This, among other things, is associated with the spread of the Omicron strain (as of January 13, 783 cases of infection were confirmed in Russia, 53% of them were in Moscow).

“As we expected, since the capital region traditionally takes the first blow as a major hub, a major transport hub,” the Deputy Prime Minister said, noting that in the three days since January 10, the number of infections with this strain in the Russian Federation has increased by 2.6 times.

Experts believe that, due to its increased contagiousness (infectiousness), "omicron" will gradually replace the "delta" strain, which is still dominant in Russia, as it happens in other countries.

Golikova also said that the rate of herd immunity in Russia reached 63.7%.

In four regions it exceeds the required 80% (Sevastopol, St. Petersburg, Karelia and Chukotka), however, in five subjects a decrease in collective immunity is recorded (Moscow, Moscow and Belgorod regions, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Chechnya).

She explained that this is due to the need to be vaccinated six months after the illness and revaccination - also after six months.

“To date, 10.6 million people have been re-vaccinated in our country - this is 33.5% of those who are subject to re-vaccination today,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

“In total, 80.6 million people in the country were vaccinated with the first component, 76.7 million people were fully vaccinated, including those who were re-vaccinated.”

  • AP

Features of the disease "omicron"

In turn, the chief sanitary doctor of Russia, Anna Popova, said that the first symptoms of the disease with the Omicron strain of coronavirus are similar to the commonplace SARS and influenza.

“But further development is not always predictable, therefore, in case of malaise, it seems to me that you should not try to conduct differential diagnostics yourself.

Only a medical worker who will make a special test can figure it out, ”she said.

At the same time, Mikhail Murashko drew attention to the reduction in the period of the latent course of the disease, which now ranges from two to five days.

According to him, complications may develop over the next few days.

“In particular, on critical days after the onset of symptoms of the disease, breathing may become difficult.

Usually our body carries out about 21-22 respiratory movements per minute, but above this is already called shortness of breath, he explained.

- This is a formidable symptom, which allows us to say that the condition is worsening or the disease is progressing.

A long-lasting temperature is also one of the alarming symptoms that requires an additional examination by a doctor.

The minister added that about 80% of coronavirus patients are currently being treated on an outpatient basis.

At the same time, he urged Russians not to self-medicate by taking antibiotics, since this would not only not bring a positive effect, but also narrow the choice for the attending physician.

Anna Popova also drew attention to the fact that "omicron" affects children to a large extent.

“It spreads quickly, the contacts in children are quite intense and dense, so stopping its spread here is also not so simple, but it is quite possible,” she suggested.

She recalled the methodological recommendations, according to which children are examined and measured in the morning, large groups are bred at different entrances.

In addition, a ladder schedule is being introduced, thanks to which children communicate less with each other during breaks.

Adopted a special schedule for visiting the dining room.

“Strict compliance with all these requirements and, importantly, parental control over compliance with these requirements in schools will also allow us to maintain the current mode of education in schools,” Popova said.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also spoke about the situation with coronavirus, warning that a serious increase in daily incidence is expected in the capital in the coming days.

“It must be kept in mind that today the virus is most likely circulating among the active population of young and middle age.

How it will look when it reaches the older generation, the chroniclers, it seems to me, is a different picture, ”RIA Novosti quotes him.