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| FILE PHOTO: A student has his temperature checked on the first day of the new school year, as schools reopen after the summer break and the lockdown due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Moscow, Russia September 1, 2020. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina/File Photo |
Russiaโs daily tally of new coronavirus cases rose to its highest since May 11 on Tuesday, prompting Moscow to take measures to keep students and the elderly off the cityโs sprawling public transport network.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the measures were needed to keep students and the elderly at home as the capital recorded 4,082 new infections on Tuesday.
โEvery day the situation with the coronavirus is becoming more difficult and dramatic,โ Sobyanin wrote on his website, adding that more than 1,000 people had been hospitalized with coronavirus in the city on Tuesday.
Sobyanin said studentsโ cards allowing them to travel on public transport in Moscow at a discount would be temporarily cancelled on Friday until the end of a two-week school holiday.
Muscovites over the age of 65 and those with chronic illnesses will be stripped of passes that allow them to travel across the city for free from Oct. 9 until Oct.28, Sobyanin added.
Sobyanin said the move was meant to protect Moscowโs senior population, which he said accounted for more than a quarter of the new coronavirus infections.
The city of nearly 13 million has already opened two temporary hospitals to tackle the spike in cases and ordered businesses to have at least 30% of their staff working remotely.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday he was unaware of plans to impose a strict lockdown despite the rapidly growing number of cases.
Russiaโs official coronavirus task force reported 11,615 new infections nationwide on Tuesday and said 188 people had died overnight, pushing the official death toll to 21,663.
With 1,237,504 infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the worldโs fourth highest number of cases.
REUTERS
