Russia is closing restaurants nationwide for a nine-day period starting on Saturday to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, as the reported number of cases in the country surpassed 1,000.
Restaurants will still be able to provide delivery services during that time, according to the decree by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, published on his website on Friday.
The reported coronavirus cases, including at least three deaths, have been predominantly in Moscow, the country’s capital and largest city. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has warned that the actual number of cases is probably “significantly more.”
Russia has prohibited regular international flights and imposed strict quarantine measures for anyone entering the country and anyone who could have been exposed to someone infected with the virus.
The government has opted not to impose lockdown measures such as those seen in neighbouring China and some European countries, including Italy, Spain and France.
President Vladimir Putin has advised Russians in a nationally televised address to stay at home and said workers should be allowed to take off Monday through Friday next week and still be paid.
Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, assured the public on Thursday that Russia does not have a coronavirus epidemic. “We still need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario,” he told reporters.
Denis Protsenko, a doctor heading the treatment of coronavirus patients at a Moscow hospital, believes that Russia will have a better understanding of the impact of the disease in the country next week.
Protsenko met with Putin earlier this week at the Kommunarka hospital, where the Russian leader donned a hazmat suit and respirator and observed the treatment of coronavirus patients.
While other world leaders have gone into isolation due to concerns about having been exposed to the virus, Putin has cultivated the image that he is at the forefront of the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Russia closed its border with neighbouring China, where the disease originated, early on, in January, when the epidemic was beginning to emerge.
Russian officials have touted that response, as well as the quarantining of incomers into the country, saying they having thwarted a greater spread of the virus than has been experienced by other countries.
Concerns among the general populace escalated this week as Putin indefinitely postponed a nationwide referendum that had been scheduled for next month to decide whether he can run for re-election.
Putin, 67, has been in power as president or prime minister for two decades. He is the longest serving Russian or Soviet leader since Joseph Stalin.
The referendum, on sweeping changes to the constitution, including to bolster the power of the government’s legislative branch, dominated by politicians loyal to Putin, had been promoted for months by Russia’s leadership.
