Russia has been hit hard by the COVID-19 epidemic like many nations. According to a report from CNN, Russia has recorded are record nearly eleven thousand COVID-19 cases in just one day.
Russia reported 10,633 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, its fourth record single-day increase in a row, in what is becoming a major headache for President Vladimir Putin.
The country’s total number of cases is now 134,687, the seventh-highest number in the world, in a dramatic turnaround from the situation back in March.
A total of 1,280 deaths has now been recorded, the country’s coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement, adding that around 50% of the cases were asymptomatic. Moscow, the country’s worst-hit city, accounts for more than a half of total cases.
Last week, Russia extended its isolation period through May 11. “The daily increase in cases has relatively stabilized but this mustn’t calm us down, the situation is still very serious,” Putin said. “The peak is not behind us, we are about to face a new and grueling phase of the pandemic… the deadly threat of the virus remains.”
Anger is rising among the country’s health workers after two dozen hospitals had to shut down for quarantines, with many doctors falling sick. Russian independent media and non-governmental organizations have reported anonymous pleas from outraged medical workers who said they had been ordered to the frontlines without adequate protection, and that bureaucratic foot-dragging was costing lives. (source)
Russia is not “controlling” the virus as some had said the nation was. Truly there is no reason why she or any nation could be expected to “control” it because that is why it is a pandemic. In fact, Russia has a much greater chance of spreading the disease because the hospital system is a disaster. The Russian Minzdrav (Ministry of Health) has reported that 30% of Russian hospitals do not have running water and 40% do not have central heat. Russia has a history of communicating serious diseases because of medical accidents from her Soviet past through now, and while the problem tends to be stronger in rural areas, it is a reflection nonetheless of the massive divide between the wealthy and the poor which plagues the nation.
Russia may become as bad or worse as the situation in the US. For her sake I hope it does not because nobody should have to endure the horrors of a pandemic. However, the facts must be faced, which is that the virus is spreading in Russia, it is not being contained, and she is being affected much the same as the whole world is.