Putin orders week-long paid holiday as Covid cases soar in Russia

Amid rising Covid death,Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered a nationwide week-long paid holiday starting on October 30 to curb Covid infections. He again urged Russians to vaccinate themselves. At a televised meeting with officials, Putin said he supported a government proposal to "declare non-working days between October 30 and November 7 throughout the country" and asked Russians to "show responsibility" and get Covid jabs.  He added in some regions where the situation is the most threatening, the non-working period could start as early as Saturday.

Russia on Wednesday reported 1,028 coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. That brought Russia's total death toll to 226,353 which is by far the highest in Europe. In some regions, mounting infections forced authorities to suspend medical assistance to the population as health care facilities were forced to focus on treating coronavirus patients. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov admitted that the situation is “very sad,” noting that the level of vaccination in those regions was particularly low.".

About 45 million Russians, or 32% of the country’s nearly 146 million people, are fully vaccinated. The government task force has registered a total of more than 8 million infections and its official COVID-19 toll ranks Russia as having the fifth-most pandemic deaths in the world behind the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico.However, state statistics agency Rosstat, which also counts deaths in which the virus wasn’t considered the main cause, has reported a much higher pandemic death toll — about 418,000 people with COVID-19 as of August. Based on that number, Russia would be the fourth hardest-hit nation, ahead of Mexico.