Moscow mayor announces weeklong holiday due to coronavirus surge

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – Moscow on Saturday announced that next week will be a non-working week due to a surge in coronavirus cases.

In a decree, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said Muscovites will have "a long holiday" on June 12-19 aiming to stem the rise in cases.

The city's enterprises are also being recommended to transfer to remote work.

Children's playrooms and food courts are temporarily suspended, and restaurants, bars, cafes, nightclubs, karaoke, bowling, and other entertainment venues are prohibited from serving visitors at night (from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.). However, takeaway service is allowed.

In addition, major city parks have closed attractions, along with children's and sports grounds and rental shops. But the parks will be open for walks.

The mayor urged the public to get free vaccinations against the virus.

Moscow has seen a significant surge in coronavirus cases for several days – over the last 24 hours officials in the capital saw 6,701 cases, the highest number since last December, and the infection rate rose to 1.7, the highest since last September.

In addition, the number of difficult cases has been growing, including those under ventilation.

A total of 13,510 new infections were reported in Russia on Saturday. The overall number of people who have been exposed to the virus is 5.19 million.

Although Russia was the first country in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine – Sputnik V – it lags badly in the rate of vaccinated people, with only 9.53% of the population having gotten a shot against COVID-19.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.78 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 175.31 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries.​​​​​​​