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Coronavirus pandemic

Healthcare system’s effectiveness may decline with rising COVID-19 cases, warns minister

When the load on ambulances, outpatient services and hospitals grows, the quality may go down, Mikhail Murashko noted

MOSCOW, November 15. /TASS/. Russia’s healthcare system will hold up if the incidence of the coronavirus infection increases but it will work at a different level of effectiveness. This is why it is very important to help decrease the load by vaccinating as many people as possible, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said in an interview with TASS.

"It is possible to continue testing the limits of medical aid. <…> The system will hold up, of course, it will work with various levels of effectiveness. When the load on ambulances, outpatient services and hospitals grows, the quality may go down. Since the spring of 2020, doctors, nurses, orderlies, drivers, and the [medical] entire staff are under colossal and incredible pressure. [My] deepest gratitude to each one of them. Where’s the limit of capabilities? I don’t know. The doctors can’t cope alone. They need help. Our [help], [the help] of Russia’s population," he said.

Replying to a question on Russians not trusting the official case statistics, the health minister said that nothing is being hidden and all information is accessible, for instance, it is being published on the anti-coronavirus website. "We publish statistics every day on the [anti-coronavirus] portal. Both the number of daily infections and the total number of patients under observation. We are not hiding anything, we speak openly. If some other information is needed, we will provide it as well," he added.

The health minister specified that before the beginning of school year, the coronavirus incidence in Russia was decreasing, yet then an increase began. "Over a million infections that’s really a lot. In 2020, there were one million one hundred thousand of those we were observing at the peak. This October, last year’s record was beaten. And currently it’s not even December yet on the calendar," he noted.

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