MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. On Thursday, the coronavirus case growth in Russia was 8.2%, - the lowest daily increase since the outbreak in the country. In Moscow, this figure was even lower - 6.1%.
According to the federal coronavirus prevention operational HQ, 4,774 cases were registered across Russia in the past 24 hours, bringing the total case to 62,773.
The last time the daily case increase was below these levels was on March 15. Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova suggests that the next day, March 16, marked the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. That day, the number of the infected approached 100. Ever since then, the number of cases grew by about 20% every day, and since early April - by over 15% every day.
Currently, there are about 43 infection cases for 100,000 residents. This is still one of the lowest rates among nations with the most cases.
Over 2.4 million coronavirus tests were conducted in Russia, approximately 2.6% returned positive results.
Almost 5,000 recoveries
In the meantime, the number of recovered patients grew by 471 and reach 4,891 (7.8% of all infected). Moscow alone released 181 patients in the past 24 hours, and 2,448 patients overall.
The fatality rate stays low, at about 0.88%. In the past 24 hours, 42 people with confirmed coronavirus infection died, bringing the total death toll to 555. This is the lowest rate among the nations with the most cases.
The federal operational headquarters confirmed that almost half of patients, diagnosed with the coronavirus, show no clinical symptoms.
Three out of five cases happen in the regions
In the past 24 hours, Moscow registered 1,959 new cases - the same number as on April 17. The daily case growth rate was 6.1% - the lowest number since March 21 (4.58%). Moscow’s share in the nationwide statistics since the beginning of the outbreak went down from 55.1% to 54.1%.
Beyond Moscow, 2,815 new cases were registered - 59% of all cases registered in the past 24 hours. Almost one quarter of those cases were registered in the Moscow Region - 688. Overall, the Region reported 7,278 cases.
Saint Petersburg reports 191 new cases; the city now stands at the third place with its total of 2,458 cases.
On Thursday, the Nizhny Novgorod Region has become the fourth region with over 1,000 cases.
Too early for conclusion
Due to these dynamics, a question whether Russia has already reached the incidence peak comes to the foreground. Russian Academy of Sciences President Alexander Sergeyev told TASS that the country has at least approached the peak, and now has to take swift measures to enter the downward slope. The success will largely depend on how effectively the regions will tackle the disease spread, he said.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Health cautions against premature conclusions. Ministry’s chief non-resident epidemiologist Nikolay Briko says that it’s too early to say that Russia reached the peak, adding that at least one more week of observation is needed. Still, he admits that the last few days brought "light at the end of the tunnel."
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin underscored during the coronavirus coordination council board meeting that Russia displays "smoothed" infection spread dynamics, but noted that "the dynamic is still there," referring to several thousand new cases registered every day. He warned that, should current incidence rate continue for three to four weeks, all 80,000 beds, allocated for the coronavirus patients, will be taken. According to the mayor, Moscow alone might need 30,000 beds. In this regard, the mayor suggested to at least double the number of the beds that the regions must allocate.
Sobyanin also called to extend the pass regime that is in effect in Moscow and the Moscow Region since April 15 to other regions. According to the official, this would provide better control over people’s movement across the country, while not shutting down borders between regions of Russia. Russian Ministry of Communications announced the same day that the digital pass system, developed by the Ministry and already deployed in the Moscow Region, will be introduced in 21 more regions. However, not every region considers it necessary: for example, the Khabarovsk Region and the Jewish Autonomous Region rejected it for a time being.