MOSCOW, Russia | President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a big week off in early November in Russia and implored the many recalcitrant to get vaccinated in an attempt to contain an out of control COVID-19 outbreak.
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Sign of the gravity of the situation, the country, which is already the most bereaved in Europe, recorded Wednesday a new record of daily deaths due to COVID-19, with 1,028 deaths, as well as 34,073 contaminations, according to figures from the government.
Russia has been facing an epidemic outbreak since June that the authorities have not been able to control, under the combined action of the Delta variant of the virus, very contagious, a sluggish vaccination and weak health restrictions.
In an attempt to put a stop to the epidemic, Mr. Putin therefore ordered to declare the period from October 30 to November 7 as non-working, a decision announced at the end of a government meeting devoted to COVID- 19.
The Russian president also gave the regions the possibility to start earlier or to extend the week of leave if the epidemic situation warrants it.
He also urged the very recalcitrant Russians to get vaccinated.
“Please be responsible,” he said, “there are only two ways out of this (epidemic) time: either by getting sick or by getting vaccinated.” He called Russia’s low vaccination rate “dangerous”.
In the past, the Russian president has several times decreed periods of paid vacation in an attempt to curb the epidemic. Announced for a short period, these nonworking periods have sometimes been extended to long weeks.
Mr. Poutine has always preferred this measure, intended to limit the movement of people and therefore the virus, rather than confine the population, an unpopular restriction which also risks slowing down the fragile economic recovery.
However, the Kremlin, which until then has mainly left the regions to take their own health measures, seems to resolve to act in the face of the deterioration of the situation.
Vaccination lagging behind
Russia has so far recorded nearly 230,000 deaths from COVID-19, according to the government toll which is largely underestimated, the national statistics agency Rosstat having, for its part, counted more than 400,000 deaths at the end of August .
Faced with this observation, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, announced Tuesday “urgent measures” to protect the most vulnerable categories, in particular the elderly, while the number of serious cases is increasing “day by day”.
The Moscow authorities have thus ordered the compulsory vaccination of 80% of public service employees, against 60% currently, by January 1, 2022, the confinement of all unvaccinated over 60 years of age from October 25 to February 25 and the teleworking of “at least 30%” of company staff.
For many experts, the battle against the virus is being played out in the field of vaccination, where Russia, yet one of the first countries to have developed a serum against COVID-19, is lagging behind.
Indeed, less than a third of some 144 million Russians are fully vaccinated, according to the specialized site Gogov which establishes a daily assessment, the majority of the population remaining skeptical vis-à-vis locally developed vaccines.
According to independent polls, more than half of Russians do not plan to be vaccinated.
Faced with this situation, the Kremlin seems to be losing patience. Its spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday called on the Russians to be “more responsible” instead of “blaming the state for everything”.
He admitted, however, that the authorities had not done enough to explain to the Russians that “vaccination has no alternative”.
Faced with vaccine reluctance despite the outbreak of the epidemic, some Russian regions have reintroduced the obligation to present a health pass to access public places.
Thus, Saint Petersburg, the second city of the country, announced Monday the establishment of such a certificate from November 1 to access sporting or cultural events bringing together more than 40 people, and from December 1 to restaurants and shops.
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