MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. Russia’s coronavirus spread rate kept decreasing on Thursday, declining to a new low of 0.89 since March 12, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s latest data.
In all the ten Russian regions with the largest number of COVID-19 cases, the coronavirus spread rate remained below 1. It stayed unchanged at 0.98 in St. Petersburg and in the Krasnoyarsk Region, equaled 0.96 in the Irkutsk and Moscow Regions, 0.95 in the Voronezh and Rostov Regions and 0.94 in the Sverdlovsk Region, the latest estimates show.
The coronavirus spread rate dropped to 0.78 in Moscow (a new low not seen since March 12), to 0.73 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region (a new low for the region since August 7, 2020) and to 0.72 in the Samara Region that entered the group of the ten Russian territories with the largest number of COVID-19 cases, outpacing the Arkhangelsk Region.
The coronavirus spread rate shows the number of people one patient can infect before being isolated. Along with other criteria, it was used to define the regions’ readiness for a step-by-step removal of restrictions introduced last spring to combat the pandemic. Now this rate is used to adopt decisions on resuming regular passenger service with foreign countries.
In accordance with the Federal Service for Surveillance of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing’s recommendations, the borders with a country may be opened if the coronavirus spread rate does not exceed 1 for a week.