Moscow City Hall on Thursday ordered the closure from October 28 to November 7 of all non-essential services in order to stem its deadliest outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic.
"
During this period, all companies and organizations in Moscow will have to stop work
" wrote Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, specifying that places of "
sale of medicines, food products and basic necessities
"
are exempt
.
During these eleven days, theaters and museums will also be able to continue operating with a 50% gauge and on condition that visitors have a health pass.
Read also Covid-19: Russia records more than 1,000 deaths in 24 hours for the first time
“
Experience shows us that non-working days are the most effective way to reduce the number of cases and deaths,
” said Sergei Sobyanin.
Russia is suffering its worst wave of Covid-19 epidemic since the start of the pandemic.
On Thursday, the country again broke its record for contaminations and deaths in 24 hours, with 1,036 new deaths and 36,339 new cases, respectively.
The Russian government has officially recorded nearly 227,389 deaths from Covid-19 to date, but this toll is largely underestimated, the national statistics agency Rosstat having, for its part, counted more than 400,000 deaths at the end of August.
Read alsoCovid-19: in Moscow, the unpopular "
sanitary QR Code
" already abandoned
The effects of this wave are increased tenfold by a laborious vaccination campaign, due to the mistrust and the wait-and-see attitude of the Russians.
Less than a third of them are vaccinated, according to the specialized site Gogov.
After weeks without concrete action, the authorities have finally announced several restrictive measures in recent days.
On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin declared a week off in early November.
But the public authorities still refuse, for the time being, to any confinement or curfew, for fear of experiencing an already fragile economy.