MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. High dispersion and low mobility of Russian people are among reasons of relatively low coronavirus incidence in Russia, says the analytical report named "The influence of the COVID-19 coronavirus on situation in Russian healthcare," prepared by the Ministry of Health’s Central Research Institute of Healthcare Organization and Informatics.
"There are several main reasons for relatively low COVID-19 incidence rate in Russia, in comparison to countries with high incidence rate: 1. Russia is the largest country in the world, therefore, the population is relatively dispersed, which objectively reduces people’s contacts; 2. Relatively low mobility of the Russian population compared to population of the European nations and the US," the report reads.
Besides, low incoming tourist flow, low tourism activity of Russian themselves and low development of internal tourism - especially during winter times - are also named among the reasons of low coronavirus incidence in Russia.
The experts also underscore high vaccination rate, hospital equipment, good organization of work of clinics, and measures taken by the authorities in a bid to prevent the coronavirus import.
The study also notes high rate of coronavirus tests (per capita), concluding that the low incidence rate is not a consequence of poor testing coverage.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 3,100,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 218,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 959,700 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 99,399 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 10,286 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 972 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.