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Moscow authorities announced Tuesday that residents will soon be required to present anti-COVID passports to enter restaurants as the city battles a surge in infections caused by the Delta variant.
The new cap is the latest in a series of measures after new daily coronavirus cases tripled in just two weeks, with Mayor Sergei Sobyanin attributing the surge to the highly contagious Delta variant first identified in India.
In a post on his blog, Sobyanin wrote that from June 28, diners must present a QR code that shows a three-day negative coronavirus test – or proof that they have been vaccinated or contracted coronavirus in the past six months were.
“We have to find solutions that allow us to protect people to the maximum and to relieve the health system,” he said.
However, these solutions, he added, could not disrupt the “normal functioning” of the service sector and “other economic sectors”.
“In many European and Asian cities, similar rules for visiting restaurants and cafés have been in effect for several months. And it is time for Moscow to learn from their experiences if we are to avoid another, highly undesirable lockdown, ”said Sobyanin.
Unlike many European countries, Russia did not impose a new lockdown when a second wave of infections hit it last fall to support a troubled economy.
The country instead put its hopes of containing the pandemic on its four home-grown vaccines – Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac, and the single-dose Sputnik Light.
However, authorities have faced a population very skeptical of vaccination against COVID-19. A recent independent survey found that around 60 percent of Russians do not plan to be vaccinated.
Although free vaccinations have been available since December, only 15.5 million people out of a population of around 146 million have been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which rounds up COVID numbers from the regions and the media.
Moscow and a variety of regions announced mandatory vaccination measures for service sector workers earlier this month.
Russia is among the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with the sixth highest number of cases in the world, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Moscow Covid cases are on the rise as the mayor blames the Delta variant
© 2021 AFP
Quote: Moscow requires an anti-COVID passport to enter restaurants (2021 June 22), accessed June 22, 2021 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-06-moscow-require-anti-covid -restaurants.html
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