MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has been certain all along the pandemic-related trials will be overcome successfully.
"While naturally feeling great concern I personally was certain that we would overcome all trials," Putin said in his State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly.
The president believes that Russian society and the state displayed great responsibility and solidarity. "We presented a common front and managed to take preventive measures and create conditions that eased the risks of infection and provided protection gear for medical workers and citizens," Putin said.
Putin also mentioned a five-fold increase in the number of beds reserved for Covid patients at hospitals to 280,000.
The coronavirus pandemic that began in the spring of 2020 was a period of absolute uncertainty, Putin said. "Last year our country and the whole world encountered a new, unknown, extremely dangerous infection," he stated.
He recalled that during conferences with specialists and in conversations with the leaders of foreign states quite often he heard this opinion: "We are confronted with absolute uncertainty."
"I could see that in the information from our regions, too. The number of patients who required urgent hospitalization kept rising steadily," he recalled.
Putin said that during the first weeks of the pandemic the picture was really alarming.
He recalled overcrowded hospitals and reports of risks of oxygen shortages, including in intensive care wards.
"Lung ventilators, respirators and individual protection kits were distributed by the piece," he said, adding that panic buying caused retailers’ reserves of essentials, such as cereals, butter and sugar, to shrink.