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Coronavirus pandemic

Situation with COVID-19 in Russia stabilizing, prime minister says

Russia has conducted more than 7 mln tests for the coronavirus, with nearly 200,000 people tested every day

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin believes that the situation with the spread of the coronavirus in the country has been gradually stabilizing, especially in Moscow.

"In the past three days there was the lowest growth in the number of the novel coronavirus infection cases and today it is below 3% for the first time. Today is also the first day when the number of those discharged after recovering exceeds the number of new cases," Mishustin told a board meeting of the anti-coronavirus crisis center.

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According to him, "this is good news and probably, we have started overcoming the highest point in the load on the healthcare system." "This shows that the situation has been gradually stabilizing, especially in Moscow, which was the first to face the new infection," the prime minister said.

Russia has conducted more than 7 mln tests for the coronavirus, with nearly 200,000 people tested every day. "Thanks to this we see the true picture of the disease and can say that we are able to avoid an explosive growth in infections and the most negative scenario," the prime minister stressed.

"This is the result of proactive measures taken over the past months, and certainly, a self-sacrificing work of doctors and all those bearing the biggest burden of combating this dangerous virus."

The prime minister noted that the stabilization of the situation with COVID-19 cases enables the country to reduce the load on the healthcare system. More than 164,000 hospital beds have been provided, including 24,700 in intensive care. However, just 100,000 beds in hospital wards and less than 3,000 beds in intensive care are used. "This shows that the reserves of the healthcare sector have been created and this situation enables some Russian regions to gradually lift earlier introduced restrictions," Mishustin said.

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