Russia’s coronavirus situation continuing to deteriorate, says deputy PM

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The coronavirus situation in Russia is continuing to deteriorate, Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova told a meeting on Wednesday of senior government officials and President Vladimir Putin.

Golikova said there was a critical situation in 16 Russian regions, where hospital beds were at more than 90% of capacity.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday it would send army medics to a region in the Urals hit by a surge in COVID-19 cases, after doctors there made a public plea to Putin for help.

• The Russian president Putin had said that there were no plans to introduce a nationwide lockdown in Russia as the country set a record for new coronavirus infections and fatalities

In a set back to Vladimir Putin’s mega plan to roll out shots by the end of the year, Russia has temporarily stopped covid-19 vaccine trial due to shortage of doses, news agency Reuters said.

“It’s related to the fact that there’s colossal demand for the vaccine and they are not producing enough to keep up,” said the representative of Crocus Medical, the contract research organisation that is helping run the trial in Moscow together with Russia’s health ministry, Reuters reported.

Staff in eight of the 25 Moscow clinics hosting the trial told Reuters the vaccination of new participants in the Phase III study had been temporarily paused

The trial will resume by 10 November, according to reports.

President Vladimir Putin earlier said Russia was facing challenges scaling up production of its main COVID-19 vaccine due to problems with equipment availability, but hoped to start mass vaccinations by the end of the year.