RUSSIALINK: “Coronavirus in Russia: The Latest News | April 2” – Moscow Times

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – April 2, 2020)

As the new coronavirus that has killed more than 47,000 people worldwide continues to spread, Russia has stepped up its measures to tackle the pandemic and prevent its spread within the country.

There have been 3,548 cases of coronavirus infections reported in Russia so far and 30 deaths.

April 2: 3 things you need to know today

1. Russia confirmed 771 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, bringing the country’s official number of cases up to 3,548 and marking a record one-day increase in infections.

2. Moscow has enacted a citywide quarantine from Monday, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said as the city’s number of coronavirus cases surpassed 1,000 over the weekend. Moscow residents will only be allowed to leave their homes to seek emergency medical care, shop for food or medicine, go to work, walk pets or take out the garbage.

3. President Vladimir Putin has signed legislation imposing severe punishment – including up to five years in prison – for people convicted of spreading false information about the coronavirus. The legislation also imposes punishments for people breaking coronavirus quarantine rules, including up to seven years in prison.

More updates

• Putin will address the nation Thursday afternoon after the country registered a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
• Sobyanin signed a law imposing fines on Muscovites found to be violating the city’s self-isolation orders. Individuals will be fined up to 4,000 rubles ($50) for first-time offenses and up to 5,000 rubles ($63) for repeat offenses. Businesses will be fined up to 40,000 rubles ($500) for violating the order. Legal entities will be fined up to 300,000 rubles ($3,800) for first-time offenses and up to 500,000 rubles ($6,300) for repeat offenses.
• The United States purchased medical supplies from Russia to battle the deadly coronavirus outbreak in the country, the State Department said, contradicting the Kremlin’s description of the shipment as humanitarian aid.
• Russia could close to the public or reschedule its annual parade in Red Square that commemorates the Soviet victory in World War II due to the coronavirus pandemic, the RBC news website reported.
• The city of Nizhny Novgorod has launched a QR code pass system to allow residents to leave their homes for essential reasons. Moscow has announced it is developing a similar pass system for its 12 million residents but hasn’t launched it yet.
• One of Moscow’s leading cancer hospitals, the Blokhin Cancer Center, has stopped admitting patients to chemotherapy sessions after one of the department’s medics tested positive for coronavirus. All of the chemotherapy department’s employees have been quarantined and its patients are under special supervision, the hospital said.
• Russia’s state statistics service Rosstat has said it may postpone this year’s census until 2021 due to the coronavirus.

April 1

• Russia confirmed 440 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s official number of cases up to 2,777.
• Russia has earmarked almost $18 billion to battle the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin during a televised video conference with his cabinet.
• Moscow authorities have developed a QR code system to allow residents to leave their homes as well as a smartphone app to monitor coronavirus patients’ movement in self-isolation, the city’s IT chief said Wednesday after tech experts raised privacy questions.
• President Vladimir Putin is now practicing social distancing with everyone and doesn’t shake hands, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. He has also started holding meetings remotely.
• A nurse at a police hospital in the Lipetsk region has potentially infected eight of her colleagues with the coronavirus after she returned to work with symptoms instead of self-isolating, the Kommersant business daily reported. Lipetsk region governor Igor Artamonov condemned what he said was “criminal negligence” in a statement.
• Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport, the capital’s main transport hub, has closed a third terminal due to reduced air traffic caused by the coronavirus, leaving three terminals open.
• Russia will extend its suspension of football matches in the face of the coronavirus pandemic until May 31, the Russian football association (RFS) said.
• Several regions of Russia have imposed limits on alcohol sales during their self-isolation regimes. Some cities in Siberia’s republic of Sakha, including Yakutsk, have banned the sale of alcohol altogether.
• Russia’s consumer protection watchdog has ordered quotas on the number of Russians being returned from abroad per day, the Kommersant business daily reported, a move that the Foreign Ministry said “immediately complicated, and in some places paralyzed, the process of returning” the approximately 35,000 Russians seeking to return.

March 31

• Russia confirmed 500 new coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s official number of cases up to 2,337 and marking its sevent consecutive one-day record in new cases.
• Denis Protsenko, the head doctor at the infectious diseases hospital treating Moscow’s coronavirus patients, has tested positive with the virus, the state-run Rossia 24 television station reported. He was photographed shaking hands with President Vladimir Putin six days ago.
• A Russian plane carrying medical equipment and protective gear has departed for the coronavirus-hit United States. U.S. President Donald Trump had said earlier that Russia sent a “very, very large planeload” of medical aid. “Trump accepted this humanitarian aid with gratitude,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.
• The Justice Ministry has proposed suspending registrations of marriage and divorce in Russia until at least June 1 in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

March 30

• Russia’s second-largest city St. Petersburg announced stay-at-home orders for their residents following Moscow’s quarantine.
• Moscow’s self-isolation order will be active through April 14, the city’s coronavirus crisis center said. It later deleted the statement from its Telegram channel.
• In televised comments on state television, President Vladimir Putin said decisive measures by Russia had helped win it time in its battle to contain the coronavirus and to prevent an explosive growth in cases, but that it was vital authorities now used that time effectively.
• Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asked Russia’s regional governors to consider imposing the same restrictions on movement to halt the spread of the coronavirus that have been imposed in Moscow, the state-run RIA news agency reported.
• The makeshift memorial to opposition politician Boris Nemtsov at the site near the Kremlin where he was gunned down in 2015 has been abandoned for the first time since his death due to Moscow’s stay-at-home order, the activists who had maintained a 24/7 watch at the memorial said.
• Several regions of Russia have enacted region-wide stay-at-home orders for residents, following suit with Moscow’s quarantine ….

[Article also appeared at themoscowtimes.com/2020/04/02/coronavirus-in-russia-the-latest-news-april-2-a69117]