Putin discusses measures to fight coronavirus spread in Russia at meeting with officials

President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with officials on Tuesday to discuss measures to fight the spread of the coronavirus in Russia. Moscow has been affected the most, he noted. The city has “some 500 coronavirus cases,” Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said, adding that “some of them have not been confirmed yet.”

“Aware of the dynamic,” the authorities have started taking additional measures, including increasing hospital capacities and testing. Nine labs were opened, which have tested 3,000 people and “will do another 13,000 tests by the end of the week,” according to Sobyanin. “We are testing all the samples we receive, also using Chinese and Korean test kits,” he said.

Labs of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) are also being used. The most effective tests will be chosen and it will then be decided “which tests should be manufactured for the purpose of health screening,” the mayor said. He believes that “there is no real picture of the Covid-2019 situation in Russian regions,” TASS reported.

After the meeting, Putin visited the construction site of a future hospital in Moscow’s community of Kommunarka.