Russian virus cases top 32,000, Putin warns of ‘very high’ risks

MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday it had recorded 32,008 coronavirus cases, including a record 4,070 in the last 24 hours, as President Vladimir Putin warned of "very high" risks, particularly in the ill-equipped provinces.

Official figures showed more than half of the new cases were registered in Moscow and the surrounding region. So far 273 deaths have been recorded in Russia, including 41 in the last 24 hours.

Speaking during a televised video-conference with regional governors, Putin said that "the risks surrounding the epidemic’s spread are still very high, not just in Moscow but in many other Russian regions."

Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Friday reported the completion of a 500-bed hospital built within weeks, which will start admitting patients on Monday. But Putin said every region must be equally prepared, even as several governors complained of a lack of medical equipment and specialist staff.

Vladimir region governor Vladimir Sipyagin said his region of 1.36 million only has 71 ventilators and half the needed resuscitation experts. To this Putin responded that governors "are sitting there in order to overcome challenges".

Moscow, Europe’s largest city with some 12 million inhabitants, has been under lockdown since the end of March, but officials have complained that many residents are flouting confinement rules.

Deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova warned the city "will face difficult weeks" ahead. "The peak in morbidity should arrive in the next two to three weeks," she said in a video released on social media.

Under confinement rules that Muscovites have to observe until at least May 1, they are only allowed to leave their homes to go to work, walk their dogs, take out trash or visit their nearest shop.

This week, city authorities tightened the lockdown by introducing a digital permit system, requiring that anyone travelling by car or public transport obtain a pass. Meanwhile, the Russian government has authorised the use of an anti-malarial drug to treat coronavirus patients despite international concerns over its safety and effectiveness.

The government published an order late on Thursday allowing the use of hydroxychloroquine on patients after China donated more than 68,000 packs of the tablets to Russia.

The order was published after President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday evening. It said the drug would be distributed to hospitals that are caring for patients who have tested positive for coronavirus or are suspected of having it. It said the drug’s safety and effectiveness will be monitored by the state health watchdog.

Hydroxychloroquine has been used for decades against malaria and is being tested worldwide against the virus along with another anti-malarial drug, chloroquine. Both have potentially serious side effects, especially in high doses or when administered with other medications, and their use to treat the virus is still experimental, without having gone through exhaustive clinical testing.

Some see them as a potential weapon in the fight against the virus while there is still no proven cure or vaccine. Hydroxychloroquine has shown early promise against COVID-19 in small-scale studies in France and China to reduce virus levels among people badly infected.

US President Donald Trump has touted it as a coronavirus treatment and in the US a limited emergency-use authorisation has been granted to the drug.

But many scientists are urging caution until larger trials show whether it is safe and effective. The European Medicines Agency has said that both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine need to go through clinical trials and should not be used to treat virus cases unless there is a "national emergency".