Comments by "Vierotchka" (@Vierotchka) on "COVID-19: More countries impose lockdown measures" video.

  1. Russia has created a reserve of 700,000 test kits that it will regularly replenish. And the coronavirus council announced yesterday it is allotting 1.4 billion rubles ($17.7 million) to VECTOR, the antiplague facility, and several Rospotrebnadzor labs to spur vaccine and drug development. To cope with a rising tide of patients, Russia’s federal government is building a new hospital on Moscow’s outskirts. Authorities have called on Moscow residents over age 65 to self-isolate at home—an admonishment that Russian President Vladimir Putin, 67, exempted himself from. But Putin on 24 March donned protective gear while visiting a hospital treating COVID-19 patients, and yesterday he ordered all nonessential workplaces to close from 28 March to 5 April, declaring that “the safest thing is to be at home now.” Today, the government suspended international travel into and out of Russia—starting tomorrow—except for charter flights for bringing expatriates home. Sick people who had contact with foreigners have been isolated in hospitals starting in early February. So, starting last month, hospitals were full of suspected patients, and their relatives were warned about the danger of infection. [Russia’s coronavirus commission yesterday said 112,000 people are in self-isolation in their homes.] There is some community transmission, but the majority of patients who tested positive arrived from Europe. Unfortunately, measures to restrict air travel with Europe were introduced too late, when outbreaks had already occurred in Italy and other countries. [The first genome of the novel coronavirus sequenced from a Russian patient—a woman in St. Petersburg—placed it in a clade circulating in Europe.] Over the past week, Russia has sent 15 cargo planes to Italy carrying 600 ventilators, 100 military medical specialists, and eight medical teams. The teams sent to Italy include some of Russia's top virologists and epidemiologists, including those who had participated in international efforts to combat the spread of Ebola.
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