“This is really a way to guarantee the safety of the population,” he said.
The Russian authorities attribute the worsening of the epidemic situation to the seasonal factor, to the arrival of autumn and the consequent drop in temperatures, as well as to the delta variant of the coronavirus, much more contagious than the others.
The impact of the Delta variant
Patients infected with the delta variant, Murashko said, “require more hospitalizations, first of all the unvaccinated, including young people.”
For this reason, he explained, “despite the decrease in active cases, the need for beds remains.”
According to Murashko, today Russia has 306,000 beds for COVID-19 patients.
One of the biggest concerns of the Russian authorities is the slowness with which the vaccination campaign is progressing, mainly due to the reluctance of citizens.
Just over 57.2 million vaccinated, 48% of the goal
According to official data, just over 57.2 million citizens have received the complete vaccination schedule, which is only 48% of the goal set by the government to achieve herd immunity.
“Currently in the country there are 400 vaccinated for every 100,000 people,” said Murashko, who highlighted that last non-working week a total of 3.7 million people were vaccinated.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin reported today that nearly 80 million doses of vaccines have been shipped to the country’s regions.