North Russian regions impose new COVID restrictions

Regional authorities in the Komi Republic on Tuesday announced that all unvaccinated people over 65 years of age should stay home. They are told to do their necessary shopping in the nearest stores and walk their dogs no more than a 100 meter distance from their place of living.

Similar restrictions are introduced across the country.

The measures are taken as the number of people hospitalized with COVID spikes. In the far northern Yamal-Nenets region, the hospitals are now packed with patients, and more than 60 reserve beds have been arranged. There are now 833 COVID patients in regional hospitals, 107 of them in a serious condition, the Yamal-Nenets health authorities say. A total of 22 individuals are getting artificial lung ventilation.

Alone on the 18th of October, a total of 78 COVID patients were hospitalized.

Several hospitals are now halting planned operations in order to concentrate capacities on the infected patients.

Head of the regional health department Sergei Novikov now calls on locals to use face masks in public areas and keep social distancing. According to Novikov, the main reason for the high infection rates is insufficient vaccination.

“We see that more than 50 percent of the patients hospitalized are under 40 years of age,” he says in a comment.

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“In Yamal, only 45 percent of the adult population is vaccinated and that is the main reason for the hike in infections during this fourth wave,” he explains.

Judging from regional statistics, a significant increase in new infections is now taking place. Weekly figures published the 7th of October, show a total of 660 new regional cases registered. In neighboring Komi Republic the number for the period was 1591, data from Coronavirusstat show. In Arkhangelsk Oblast the number of new weekly infections reached  1912 cases and in Murmansk - 1131. 

In all of the country, almost eight million people have had the infection and more than 220,000 have died.