MOSCOW, May 16. / TASS /. Russia’s coronavirus spread rate surged to 1.06 on Sunday and has been above 1 for eight days in a row, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s data.

The COVID-19 spread rate surpassed 1 in six out of ten Russian regions with the highest caseload. In Moscow, it stood at 1.13, in the Samara Region the figure hit 1.11, in the Nizhny Novgorod Region - 1.06. Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk Region, the spread rate was 1.03, in the Moscow Region, it reached 1.02. In the Irkutsk and Rostov Regions, the COVID-19 spread rate amounted to 0.99, in the Voronezh Region - 0.97, whereas in the Krasnoyarsk Region it was 0.96 for the second day in a row.

The coronavirus spread rate indicates the average number of people that one person can infect before isolation. Along with other criteria, this figure is used to determine, whether the regions are ready to lift the restrictive measures introduced last spring to combat the pandemic. Currently, the spread rate is applied in terms of the decisions on the resumption of regular international passenger traffic. According to Russia’s sanitary watchdog’s recommendations, the country can open the borders for a particular state if the COVID-19 spread rate there does not exceed 1 within a week.