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Halting rise in cases, maintaining economy key during pandemic, Kremlin emphasizes

Dmitry Peskov links the restrictions in several Russian regions to the availability of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients

MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. In their battle against COVID-19, the Russian authorities have been trying to maintain a balance between preventing the number of new cases from increasing and ensuring the conditions for the economy to function, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

"The main task is to walk a tightrope between trying to break the epidemiological chains and prevent any further increase in the number of infected and after all ensure conditions so as the economy keeps on functioning and people are able to earn money," the Kremlin spokesman said.

Peskov links the restrictions in several Russian regions to the availability of hospital beds for COVID-19 patients. "This number of reserve beds in many regions has been shrinking rapidly, since more people are getting infected than recovering, the math here is undeniably simple: the more people get sick, the more hospital beds are occupied day by day," Peskov explained.

According to him, "those regions where the number of reserve beds are hitting a critical point, take more effective measures; those regions with what is known as the reserve stock, take measures in an attempt to find [a balance between restrictions and the economy functioning]."

"After all, accumulated experience exists, this pandemic didn’t just happen yesterday," Peskov added.