MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. A rise in flu cases has been detected in Russia, along with an increase in viral respiratory infections, deputy head of the epidemiological control department of the Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare Albina Melnikova informed on Wednesday.

"We are witnessing a rise in incidence in Russia. <…> However, we have to point out that the rise in the majority of Russia’s regions is moderate - from 10% to 30%, and only nine regions are showing a 50% increase [in flu cases]," she told reporters.

Melnikova noted that the Primorsky, Siberian, Ural and Central Federal Districts had reported the highest number of cases. The consumer rights watchdog has also detected an increase in cases of influenza type A.

The official added that special measures are being implemented to avoid the spread of flu and viral respiratory diseases, namely, introduction of quarantine at schools.

On February 11, the watchdog reported that weekly flu and common cold epidemic threshold had been exceeded in 37 regions of Russia.

Vaccination is the most effective means of flu prevention. Each year, from 5% to 10% of the planet’s population get the flu, a disease that kills up to 650,000 people every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

In September 2019, head of the Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare Anna Popova informed that since 1996, when the flu vaccine was first introduced in Russia, the flu rate in Russia had decreased 196 times.