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Moscow restaurants lose 80% of revenue during first COVID-free day regime

Starting from June 28, the experiment forcing catering establishments to operate in a "coronavirus-free" regime is in force across the Russian capital

MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. Moscow’s restaurants lost at least 80% of their takings on the first day of the new ‘coronavirus-free’ regime, a representative of the restaurant business in Moscow Sergey Mironov told TASS.

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"The maximum revenue of restaurants, including summer terraces, is about 20% in comparison to last Monday," he said.

Starting from June 28, the experiment forcing catering establishments to operate in a "coronavirus-free" regime is in force across Moscow. Restaurants and cafes can now only accept people vaccinated against COVID-19, those who have recovered within the last six months, or people with a negative PCR test valid for three days, according to the decree of the Moscow mayor.

First Deputy Head of the Office of the Mayor and the Government of Moscow Alexei Nemeryuk told TASS earlier that catering establishments that cannot check guests’ QR codes can only offer takeaway or delivery starting from June 28. Customers buying food and drinks for takeaway will not need QR codes, and they will be able to pick up their orders at the entrance. Waiters, hostesses, bartenders, and other employees will continue to wear gloves and masks.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Moscow government approved a package of additional measures to support catering businesses. They will receive a deferral on lease payments for Q3 2021 for premises rented from the city, lease payments are postponed until the end of 2021. Catering enterprises are also included in the program of subsidies to small and medium-sized businesses.

The federal anti-coronavirus crisis center said earlier on Tuesday that Russia has documented 20,616 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total case count to 5,493,557. The relative daily increase rate has reached 0.38%. Currently, there are 374,975 active COVID-19 cases in Russia.

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