MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. The number of seriously ill coronavirus patients in Moscow has stabilized at 1,000 to 1,300 people in 24 hours, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at a government meeting on the epidemic situation in Russia, adding that this happened largely due to early diagnostics.
"Thanks to early diagnosis and treatment, our number of seriously ill patients diminishes gradually. […] Over the last 10 days, the [daily increase] in the seriously ill has stabilized at 1,000 to 1,300 per day. There is no explosive growth," Sobyanin said.
The mayor added that this allows the entire city medicine to work calmly and on normal schedule, especially the hospitals. Over the past week, Moscow has developed a clear system of work with the coronavirus patients, which, according to the mayor, includes timely diagnosis, isolation of risk groups and hospital and outpatient treatment.
"A clear system of handling COVID patients has been formed in the past two weeks. It includes quick and timely diagnosis, isolation of risk groups and hospital and outpatient treatment, which work together as a single mechanism or a system," he stated.
Early disease detection makes it possible to swiftly isolate the risk group, he elaborated, adding that it slows down the infection spread rates. Apart from that, thanks to early diagnosis, patients begin to receive either hospital or outpatient treatment quicker. These measures, in his words, help to reduce the number of those potentially exposed to infection and of those in serious condition.
" <...> Currently we have a rather big safety margin in the medical system for the upcoming two weeks," the mayor said.
Improved quality of tests
Coronavirus tests are conducted in private and regional laboratories, their quality in Moscow has increased by 50%, Sergei Sobyanin revealed. "The number of [coronavirus] tests has grown substantially. There was a period when their quality was not very high. Today, their quality has increased almost by half, and the coverage has grown as well," he said.
Over 315,000 coronavirus tests have been conducted in the Russian capital by now.
According to previous reports, another 12 private laboratories in Moscow began to collect biomaterial from individuals and conduct research on a commercial basis. They can process up to 10,000 tests per day in excess of the city’s capacities.
As of April 20, as many as 26,350 coronavirus cases were confirmed in Moscow, with a daily growth being 2,026.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,414,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 165,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 629,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 47,121 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,446 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 405 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.