Russia’s Covid-19 epidemic tops 80,000 cases as authorities hope to turn the tide during May holidays

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Russia has risen by 6,261 since Saturday and reached almost 81,000, according to the latest national update. The disease has claimed 66 more lives, pushing the death toll to 747.

The current figures are a promising sign that Russia will not see an explosive spread of the coronavirus, but making sure it doesn’t happen will require discipline from the public, head of the Russian sanitary regulator Anna Popova said in an interview on Sunday.

“We don’t have any explosion. Preventing one was one of our tasks and we see it coming to fruition,” she said. “That is, unless we have a spree of quarantine violations during the May holidays. This is the biggest risk we have now.”

The first days of May, which normally include two national holidays and consequently few working days, is traditionally a period for socializing in Russia. Social distancing measures have managed to curb the pace of the Covid-19 spread to a manageable level, but all that progress could be reversed if people start to break the rules en masse, Popova warned.