Coronavirus restrictions to stay in Moscow until vaccine is ready: Mayor

MOSCOW, May 28, 2020, TASS. Restrictive measures, introduced over the coronavirus pandemic, will stay in Moscow until the vaccine is ready, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin told Rossiya-24 TV channel, TASS reported.

“I am afraid that the ‘self-preservation’ regime, the regime of all these sanitary restrictions, will last long — until we get the vaccine,” he said.

Meanwhile, the mayor noted that Moscow residents should not “always live locked away.” “We must live a normal life: shop, communicate, stroll, but abiding by these elementary requirements that are an axiom in many countries,” Sobyanin said.

The mayor underscored that reality dictates self-imposed restrictions. “These minimal restrictions are required to secure life and health of relatives, so that we do not roll back to that difficult situation,” the mayor commented.

On May 27, the Moscow mayor ordered the second stage of withdrawal of restrictions, reopening non-grocery retail and service industry businesses and allowing city residents to take walks outdoors.

According to the executive order, the self-isolation regime, digital passes and other restrictions in Moscow will be in force until June 14. The mayor ruled that it is too early to reopen theaters, museums, barber shops, restaurants and fitness centers.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the Health Ministry to brace for a possible second wave of the coronavirus in October-November 2020. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko predicted that the first results of clinical tests of COVID-19 vaccines will be there by late July, and that a vaccine should become available for mass administration at about the same time.