MOSCOW — Moscow’s mayor has
effectively declared a public holiday for all of next week to combat a surge in
COVID-19 cases.
اضافة اعلان
Sergei Sobyanin announced the
decision on Saturday, saying it would not affect organizations that maintain
the Russian capital’s infrastructure, the military, and other strategically
important enterprises.
Monday is anyway a public holiday,
and the mayor told people to also stay off work for the rest of the week.
“To stop the rising rate of sickness
and to save lives, today I signed a decree providing for non-working days from
15 to 19 June 2021 with pay for employees,” Sobyanin said on his official blog.
Sobyanin also ordered all bars,
restaurants and venues to close by 11pm in the city until June 20.
On Saturday, Russia reported 13,510
new
COVID-19 cases in the preceding 24 hours, the highest daily tally since
early February. Of those, 6,701 were reported in Moscow, the highest tally in
the city so far this year.
The mayor also urged elderly
residents to remain at home, and for residents of the city to get vaccinated as
soon as possible.
Though vaccines have been readily
available in the capital since January, when Russia launched its national
inoculation program, take-up has been slow.
Sobyanin last month decried the low
take-up, describing it as “remarkable” that hospitals in the capital were
filling up with COVID-19 patients while vaccines were widely available.
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