Russia imposes curfew on food and hospitality sector

Russia at worst of pandemic despite Sputnik V 0:57

(CNN) -

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has banned the holding of hotel and catering events across the country from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. as the country struggles to control the COVID-19 pandemic. 19.

In a statement published on Monday, the Kremlin called for "tightening control over compliance with all restrictive measures," including "the introduction of a ban on the holding of leisure and entertainment events and the provision of food services from 23:00 until 6:00 in the morning ".

Putin's order states that the measure must be introduced before November 30.

Russia's covid-19 crisis is worsening and its officials have begun to openly admit that the country is facing a dire winter.

• Russia is going through its worst moment in the pandemic: record deaths, strict confinements and overflowing hospitals.

  How did they get here?

Experts blame the situation on low vaccination rates.

And in Moscow, a 10-day lockdown was established from October 28 to November 7, with some limited exceptions.

Before announcing the lockdown, the city ordered all unvaccinated residents over the age of 60, as well as unvaccinated people "suffering from chronic diseases," to stay home for four months, until the end of February.

advertising

"The situation in Moscow also continues to develop in the worst case," wrote Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin in a blog post announcing the measures on October 21.

Experts blame the situation on the slowness of the vaccination campaign, an overwhelmed health system and general distrust in the government.

Russia is struggling to control rates of covid-19 cases.

Russia was the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, for use in August 2020, but only about 30% of the population is fully vaccinated in a country where four vaccines already exist. National Production.

A recent poll by the independent pollster Levada-Center revealed that 52% of Russians were unwilling to get vaccinated against the coronavirus with Russian vaccines, compared to 14% who were.

Russia has yet to approve any foreign-made coronavirus vaccines, and only Russian vaccines are available domestically.

• Moscow imposes lockdown as covid-19 deaths rise in Russia

The Kremlin has admitted its partial responsibility for the low vaccination rates.

"Of course, not all that had to be done was done to inform and explain the inevitability and importance of vaccination," said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Putin, on October 19.

"But at the same time, the citizens of our country must adopt a more responsible position and get vaccinated," he added.

Russia registers a total of 228,581 deaths from covid-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

However, the actual death toll is believed to be much higher because the country's coronavirus task force does not include coronavirus-related deaths in its official count, in which the virus was not the sole or leading cause of death. .

- CNN's Zahra Ullah and Katharina Krebs contributed to this report.

Covid-19