Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova presented a plan of additional measures to combat coronavirus at a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and the government. She noted that Russia is not immune from the further proliferation of the omicron, in this regard, it is necessary to continue restrictive measures.
Speaking at the meeting, Mrs. Golikova announced the high infectivity of the new strain of coronavirus. “Cross-border movements are quite high, and soon citizens will go on vacation, meaning the possibility of using the New Year holidays, and of course, we are not insured against further penetration of this strain to us,” the Deputy Prime Minister said. According to Tatiana Golikova, the authorities will “adjust their response measures, seeing how this situation is developing.”
Tatiana Golikova presented a plan of additional measures of the government. It provides for the creation of conditions to reduce the spread of COVID-19, prevent disease, improve the efficiency of the health care system and support medical workers.
According to plan:
- citizens arriving from epidemiologically disadvantaged countries are isolated for 14 days and undergo double testing,
- the validity period of laboratory analysis for COVID-19 is reduced to 48 hours,
- regions are not advised to lift restrictions related to coronavirus,
- 99 border checkpoints will be equipped with an automatic passenger pass system,
- in 2022, payments to doctors and medical workers involved in the fight against COVID-19 will continue, the government will allocate an additional 51.6 billion rubles for this.
The Deputy Prime Minister said that Russia has registered 77 kits for the diagnosis of coronavirus by PCR, 56 of which are domestic, all of them are capable of detecting the omicron strain.
According to Ms Golikova, clinical trials of a skin test will begin in December to assess cellular immunity to coronavirus. “We have completed preclinical studies and are planning to begin clinical trials of a new drug in December … This is a skin test to assess cellular immunity to COVID-19. It was developed by the St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute, ”said Tatiana Golikova.
Earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister said that Russia cannot completely close itself off from the new strain of coronavirus, but will fight it in accordance with the government’s plan for operational counteraction. Mrs. Golikova said that experts are not yet able to fully assess the course of the disease caused by the new strain.
Since November, a new strain of COVID-19, called omicron, has begun to spread around the world. In Russia, the omicron strain was diagnosed in 16 people.
In Russia, over the past day, 28,343 cases of coronavirus infection were registered. This is 4.11% less than the day before (29,558). The total number of cases increased to 10,074,797.
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