MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Twenty-one people with coronavirus symptoms were taken to hospitals from a nursing home for the elderly and disabled in the Smolensk region, western Russia, the press service of the regional administration said on Tuesday.
Thirty-four people living in the nursing home in the Smolensk region’s city of Vyazmy have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Presumably, they contracted the disease from a home attendant diagnosed with Covid-19. According to the regional healthcare department Elena Voitova, eight of them were taken to a hospital in Smolensk. The others were taken to a hospital in Vyazmy. Ten more people from the nursing home will be taken to this hospital soon. In case their health condition deteriorates, they will be taken to Smolensk, she added.
Smolensk region governor Alexei Ostrovsky wrote on his Instagram account earlier he had ordered to allocate 60 million rubles (824,700 US dollars) to buy individual protective gear for medical personnel. Apart from that, in his words, an order has been placed with a federal operator for 3.5 million face masks, 900,000 respirators and 900 disposable eyewear.
To date, a total of 21,102 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,694 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 170 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.