Covid-19 recoveries in Russia top 280,000

Russia sees fewer cases and fatalities this week but also fewer recoveries from novel coronavirus

MOSCOW: The number of recoveries from the novel coronavirus in Russia crossed 280,000 on Sunday.

Over the last 24 hours, 5,409 people were discharged from hospital, taking recoveries to 280,050, the country's emergency task force said in a daily report.

During the same period, 8,835 got infected with Covid-19, raising the number of cases to 528,964, it said.

The death toll rose to 6,948 after 119 fatalities were registered since yesterday, it added.

As for weekly developments, Russia saw a slightly lower number of cases and fatalities over the last seven days, according to data by the emergency task force.

At least 61,291 new cases and 1,089 deaths were confirmed this week, versus 61,830 and 1,166 the week before.

At the same time, recoveries were lower than the week before as well, as a total of 53,319 patients were successfully treated for the virus this week compared to 54,848 last week.

Although Russian authorities sound optimistic and are gradually relaxing restrictions, the daily growth in coronavirus cases continues to hover over 8,000 daily.

Russia's chief sanitary officer Anna Popova explained this by saying Russia has seen two epidemiological processes: the first in Moscow, and the second in the other regions.

Moscow, which first faced the virus outbreak, has passed its viral peak, while the rest of Russia has yet to, she said.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko called the situation "controllable" but said some restrictions will be maintained until a vaccine for Covid-19 is developed, perhaps sometime before year’s-end.

In late May, the Russian government started to lift restrictions inside the country, saying the situation had stabilised, and proceeded to economic recovery measures.

On Monday, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced a partial opening of borders for international travel, while Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin lifted the lockdown on the capital.

Since originating in China last December, the pandemic has claimed over 430,000 lives in 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil and Russia are currently the world’s worst-hit countries.

Some 7.8 million cases have been reported worldwide, while some 3.71 million patients have recovered so far, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.