09/14/2021 7:43 AM
Clarín.com
World
Updated 9/14/2021 7:43 AM
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, had to
isolate himself because he was in close contact
with several positive cases of coronavirus in his environment.
According to the Russian Presidency, Putin informed the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rajmón, during a telephone conversation.
Due to the
quarantine
he must keep, the Russian president will participate by videoconference in the summits of leaders of the Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that will be held this week in Dusambe.
This Monday the Russian president commented during a meeting in the Kremlin with Russian Paralympic athletes that several cases of contagion of covid-19 had been detected in their environment.
"It is necessary to understand what is really happening with this. I think I will
have to isolate myself
soon, we have many patients," he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said in his daily press conference that the
bilateral meetings
scheduled during the Dusambe summits were
canceled
, and "will not be held by videoconference."
In addition, he indicated that Putin's self-isolation "does not change anything,
there is no need to activate any special protocol
," and assured the press that "the president is completely healthy."
Peskov affirmed that it is known who of Putin's environment members got the coronavirus, but he
avoided mentioning names
.
"Self-isolation does not directly affect the president's work, he will simply
not participate in face-to-face activities
for a while for now. But this does not affect the intensity of his work: the president will continue his activities in video conference format," he added.
Regarding Putin's meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Peskov noted that the meeting was held before the quarantine decision was made.
Vladimir Putin met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Moscow.
Photo: EFE.
"I can tell you that he met with Assad not in the afternoon, but in the morning," he explained, stressing that "
no one's health was endangered
."
The Russian president, who was vaccinated with the Sputnik V vaccine last February, avoided participating in all kinds of face-to-face public events for more than a year and has preferred to hold virtual meetings with representatives of the Russian government and institutions.
Covid in Russia
Russia is among the countries most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, in fifth position in terms of the number of infected.
Despite the high availability of vaccines, health authorities are unable to control infections.
As of Tuesday, the country had
7.1 million cases and more than 194,000 deaths,
the highest figure in Europe.
Authorities fail to convince a
population skeptical of vaccines
and independent polls show that a majority of Russians do not want to inject themselves.
Only 39.9 million of the 146 million Russians are fully vaccinated
, according to the Gogov website, which collects official data from the regions.
Russia has several vaccines of its own available to its population, but does not distribute any vaccines made in Western countries.
People line up to receive the coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Moscow.
Photo: REUTERS
Moscow, the epicenter of the pandemic in the country, and other regions have introduced mandatory vaccination measures to speed up immunization and Putin has repeatedly called on his citizens to be immunized.
The Kremlin's goal was to have 60% of the population protected in September, but it did not achieve its purpose despite having started vaccination in early December.
The Russian government has been accused of
underestimating the effects of the pandemic
and of having given up on introducing new restrictive measures after the severe lockdown decreed in 2020.
The authorities pinned their hopes of curbing the pandemic on the four vaccines designed there: Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac and the single-dose Sputnik Light.
With information from EFE.
Look also
Sputnik V: for the WHO, the approval of the vaccine is suspended and it is not known until when
The Lancet: A third dose against Covid is not yet necessary, despite the threat of the Delta variant