MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in Moscow has plunged by 40% in comparison with the spring peak of infections, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Russia’s Channel One on Friday.
"Hospital bed availability is higher than in the spring. We have about 1,000 hospital admissions per day, while there were 1,700 at the peak in the spring," he said.
Apart from that, Sobyanin pointed out that Moscow converted some culture and sports facilities into reserve hospitals which allowed the stationary hospitals to provide uninterrupted planned and emergency treatment.
Moscow remains the worst affected in Russia, and the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been recently on the rise. To date, the city recorded a total of 321,812 COVID-19 cases (of those, 3,701 infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours), 259,127 recoveries and 5,530 fatalities.
Moscow's caces reached April's levels
The number of newly identified coronavirus cases in Moscow has reached the levels observed in April, while the number of patients with severe symptoms has also gone up, Sobyanin said.
"The number of newly identified coronavirus patients reached the level of 4,000. These are numbers comparable to the biggest numbers of April," he said.
Sobyanin added that the number of coronavirus tests had also doubled. "Nevertheless, the main factor is the number of severe cases and hospitalizations," he said. "Even the morbidity is growing. This shows that the pandemic is going ahead, the dynamics don’t promise anything good," the mayor said.
"The statistics is horrifying, of course. Almost 83% of the COVID deaths are citizens aged over 60. Half of them are citizens with chronic conditions," Sobyanin added.
Patients aged over 65
The number of coronavirus patients aged over 65 amounted to 50% in Moscow in September-October, Sobyanin wrote.
He recalled that elderly people are at high risk.
"If at the onset of the pandemic, patients aged 65+ made up about 20% in coronavirus hospitals, in September-October their share came close to 50%," Sobyanin stated.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 36,791,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 1,067,400 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 27,688,700 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, 1,272,238 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,009,421 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 22,257 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.
Moscow remains the worst affected in Russia, and the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has been recently on the rise. To date, the city recorded a total of 321,812 COVID-19 cases (of those, 3,701 infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours) and 259,127 recoveries.