Moscow announces ‘non-working week’ as virus surges

MOSCOW: Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Saturday announced a "non-working" week in the Russian capital, with non-essential workers told to stay home, as Covid-19 cases hit a six-month high.

The decision marks a change of tone for Russian authorities, with President Vladimir Putin repeatedly insisting that Russia has handled the pandemic better than most countries.

"During the past week the situation with the spread of the coronavirus infections has sharply deteriorated," Sobyanin said on his website as the city registered 6,701 daily infections, the highest number since December last year.

Sobyanin added that "thousands" of hospital beds have been repurposed for coronavirus patients.

"We cannot not react to such a situation," he said. "To stop the growth of infections and to save people’s lives, today I signed a decree providing for non-working days between June 15-19."

The order affects all employees in the Russian capital, a city of 12 million, except for essential workers.

Non-essential workers are not required to work from home during the period, but will still retain their salaries.

Together with the weekends and a public holiday on June 14, it means most Moscow workers will not return to their offices until June 20.

The mayor also announced the closure of food courts and playgrounds while restaurants, bars and clubs will be baned from serving customers between 23:00 and 06:00.

Sobyanin also called on employers to transfer at least 30 percent of non-vaccinated employees to working from home after the week-long shutdown.

Cases have been on the rise across the country in recent weeks as Russia struggles to innoculate its citizens despite domestic vaccines being widely available to the public.

A spike in cases has also been reported in Russia’s second city Saint Petersburg, which is co-hosting the Euro 2020 football championship.

Earlier this week, Sobyanin said Moscow would be opening several field hospitals to accomodate the influx of patients.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday gave his strongest hint yet that a plan to lift all coronavirus restrictions would be delayed, due to concern over the spread of a new variant.

The Delta variant, which first emerged in India, has caused a surge in Covid cases in Britain, throwing into doubt government plans to ease curbs from June 21.

Speaking on the sidelines of the G7 leaders’ summit in Cornwall in southwest England, Johnson said the spread was a matter of "serious, serious concern".

Reports have indicated the government is expected to announce a delay of up to four weeks to the final date for unlocking.

"It’s clear that the Indian variant is more transmissible and it’s also true that the cases are going up, and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up," Johnson told Sky News.