UPDATE: Putin says coronavirus situation stabilizes in Russia

(Adds new data throughout)

MOSCOW, May 22 (PRIME) -- The coronavirus situation is stabilizing in Russia, fewer new infection cases are detected, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting devoted to the epidemiological situation on Friday.

“According to the new objective data, according to experts’ assessments… the situation is stabilizing. In Moscow, which was the first to face the epidemic, and in the other regions we can see a fall in everyday dynamics of new infection cases. The positive dynamics are yet not as fast as we would like to, and they are still unstable, but we can see them,” he said.

The president said that the peak of new infection cases was registered in Russia on March 26, it amounted to 24.1%. On Thursday, the rise of new cases stood at 3.5%.

A new wave of the disease is possible in October and November, Putin warned, and it should be taken into consideration while designing a plan of lifting the restrictions.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova agreed and said that the number of new infection cases has fallen 22.5% over the past decade.

Russia’s medical system has weathered the coronavirus challenge, Golikova also said, adding that the dynamics are optimistic, but there is a lot of work ahead to contain the pandemic fully.

Director of the Federal Service for Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare Oversight Anna Popova said that Russia plans a nationwide survey of the people’s immunity to coronavirus in the third decade of June.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that Moscow has managed to prevent the most negative epidemic scenario, and that the current situation in the city can be called satisfactory in terms of the key parameters.

“We have managed to stabilize the situation. Today, we can say for sure that we have managed to avoid the most pessimistic scenario, which many of the world’s megalopolises faced. And today I can tell you that Moscow looks not bad in terms of a number of the key parameters,” he said.

But the city still needs strict sanitary measures to fight the disease including the lockdown regime, the masks and gloves regime, and the passes.

Putin ordered the participants to prepare new recommendations to deal with the consequences of the pandemic, including in the economy, and measures for further fight against coronavirus.

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