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Global coronavirus situation is yet to stabilize — Russia's chief sanitary physician

12 April 2021 23:48 (UTC +04:00)

The coronavirus situation in the world has not stabilized as of now, head of the Russian consumer watchdog Anna Popova told a briefing Monday, APA reports citing TASS.

"As of the first ten days of April this year, speaking about the global situation in the world, many countries of the European Union show growth [of the COVID-19 infection]. Moreover, [it is observed] in Africa, Americas and Asia. Therefore, we are yet to see stabilization," she said.

Popova added that 25,000 out of 3 million Russian tourists who passed PCR tests tested positive since international air travel was resumed. "It is about 1% of positive tests, which are quite high numbers," the official noted.

The coronavirus situation has lately taken a turn for the worse in 21 countries with which Russia resumed air travel, Popova said. "Speaking of the countries with which we have air travel, we have seen certain destabilization of the situation in 21 out of 30 such countries over the past three weeks. However, the highest infection numbers are registered in Turkey," she said.

Earlier, Popova warned about a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in Turkey as of late. According to her, the infection rates jumped by 3.5-4 times in "literally a few weeks." She also pointed out that most new COVID-19 strains are imported into Russia from Turkey.

Russia resumed air travel with Turkey among the first nations in the world on August 1, 2020.

According to the latest statistics, more than 136.1 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 2,900,000 deaths have been reported. To date, 4,649,710 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 4,272,165 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 103,263 fatalities nationwide. The Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.