MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Moscow municipal officials never considered the possibility of a "blanket lockdown" amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Friday.
"No blanket lockdown in Moscow was on the agenda from the outset. We made a well-reasoned decision that Moscow would keep functioning as usual, to the degree the situation permits. It’s nearly a whole year now, since last year’s May holidays, that Moscow, and its airports, railway stations, bus stations and roads, have functioned normally. No serious restrictions exist. We have been operating and are still working this way all along," Sobyanin said at the Health Ministry’s board meeting on Friday.
He stressed that out of all European air hubs, Moscow was number one. He said that about 100 million people flew into Moscow every year on average. More than two million entered the city by suburban rail and 1.5 million motor vehicles entered into and left the city daily. Sobyanin estimates Moscow’s daily visitor turnover at 3.5-4 million.
"Closing Moscow would be tantamount to closing the whole country 100% and disrupting all transportation chains. That’s how our country and our transportation system work. Its current form was shaped over decades and centuries. That’s our specific feature. Ours is a large country, but there is only one world-class transport hub in the entire nation," Sobyanin emphasized.
He stressed that practically no other city around the world had been able to afford to avoid a strict quarantine. At the same time, he acknowledged that "vigorous discussions" about the possibility of closing the city and introducing a night-time curfew and other tight restrictions did take place in the government at a certain point.