Russian regions extend workplace shutdown, Moscow to lift curbs
Five Russian regions said on Wednesday they would extend a one-week workplace shutdown that took effect nationwide on Oct. 30 in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases, as the death toll from the country's epidemic hit a record high, Reuters reports.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the shutdown last month, giving regional authorities the option of extending it.
Authorities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions, which border Ukraine, the Chelyabinsk region near the Ural mountains, Tomsk in Siberia and the western region of Smolensk said their shutdowns would be prolonged after Nov. 8.
"The tense epidemiological situation forces us to extend the period of non-working days by another week," Tomsk governor Sergei Zhvachkin said in a statement. "One non-working week is not enough to stop the chain of infection."
Russia's daily COVID-19 death toll rose to a record 1,189 on Wednesday as the government coronavirus task force also reported 40,443 new infections in the last 24 hours.
News.Az
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