I.Russia has its heroes in need: nurses, medics, doctors. State television shows grateful patients who bring flowers to their rescuers. President Vladimir Putin has promised bonuses to those who work with corona patients if they agree with the Corona virus infect. In the case of damage to health, there should be the equivalent of around 860 euros, more money with permanent disabilities if someone dies, the surviving dependents should receive around 34,500 euros.
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But probably not the relatives of Valentina Schuschina from Saint Petersburg. The 56-year-old paramedic died on April 18 in a city hospital, according to her daughter, after a positive corona test and pneumonia. But metastases in the context of cancer were said to be the cause of death. There are many such cases. On an unofficial “reminder list” that doctors have set up on the Internet, Valentina Schuschina’s name appears along with that of more than 150 other doctors and medical staff who died during the pandemic.
Third place on the worldwide corona list
Russia has just moved up to second place on the corona list with 232,243 cases of infection behind the United States. The drama of the situation illustrates that, after the Prime Minister, the Minister of Construction and the Minister of Culture, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, is also dealing with the virus infected: He was ill and was being treated in a hospital, said Peskow on afternoon.
Russia’s case numbers are increasing particularly quickly, and even high officials are unsure of the extent: According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, instead of the officially 121,301 people in the capital, around 300,000 people are actually infected. The number of deaths also raises questions.
In total, only 2116 people have officially died of Covid-19 in Russia so far, not even one in a hundred people, four times less than in Germany. Russia counts differently depending on the location; As a rule, a death has not been included in the statistics even if the Covid 19 test is positive if there are other diseases. A look at the real situation could be that in April 20 percent more people died in Moscow than on average in the same month in the past ten years; that would mean hundreds more Covid deaths in April in the capital alone.
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The authorities explain that Russia’s official corona numbers have increased five-digit daily for more than a week with an increase in test numbers, but at the same time raise new questions about the effectiveness of their measures. According to the Coronavirus Government Response Tracker from Oxford University, Russia, where far-reaching curfews have applied since the end of March, is one of the strictest countries. Nevertheless, the “peak” of the outbreak is not in sight.
Russia failed to prepare
It had good starting conditions to contain the pandemic. Compared to western countries, the number of Russians who travel abroad is low. The travel activity focuses on a few airports. The border with China was closed quite early after the outbreak there, at the end of January, in February the Chinese were banned from entering the country. All in all, Russia had around three weeks compared to European countries to prepare for the outbreak, to choose a strategy, to increase test capacities, to stock protective materials, to prepare intensive care beds.
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