Coronavirus: Russia remains in lockdown as cases top 350,000

by

euronews_icons_loading

https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/04/70/32/54/773x435_cmsv2_0c412375-e834-5d6f-9450-0236d331d61c-4703254.jpg

Moscow remains "at serious risk" and its coronavirus lockdown has been extended until May 31, according to its mayor, Sergey Sobyanin.

Sobyanin has also made the wearing of masks and gloves in public places mandatory.

Russia has had more 350,000 infections, one of the highest in the world, and Moscow is at the centre of its outbreak.

There are a reported 18,000 people in a critical condition with the disease in the city's hospitals.

The latest figures come after Russia President Vladamir Putin delegated the responsibility of easing lockdown measures to regional governors. It is they, not the president, who must now decide when to lift the restrictions.

While Russia's infections are in the hundreds of thousands, the country has reported around 3,600 deaths.

This death-to-infection ratio is far lower than in other countries and doctors and activists say the number of fatalities is much higher.

Officials in the North Caucuses region of Dagestan have said that 600 people have died of pneumonia since the start of the outbreak - just 36 have been recorded as COVID-19.