MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin assured there’s no plans to impose a nationwide lockdown, despite reaching a daily record of 17,717 new infections on Thursday.
”(We) are not planning to impose all-out restrictive measures, launch a so-called nationwide lockdown, when the economy and businesses shut down completely,” Putin said at an investment forum. “Despite a difficult epidemiological situation, right now we’re much better prepared for working during an epidemic.”
Russia has had a resurgence of the coronavirus in the past two months, with new infections spiking from 5,000 a day in early September to more than 16,000 a day this week. Reports have surfaced about overwhelmed hospitals, drug shortages and inundated medical workers.
Russia has the world’s fourth-largest tally of confirmed coronavirus cases with more than 1.5 million. The government’s coronavirus task force has reported more than 27,000 deaths.