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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia’s COVID-19 spread rate hits new low since late May

The spread rate stands at below 1 in three out of ten Russian regions with the highest COVID-19 incidence

© Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

MOSCOW, July 22. / TASS /. The COVID-19 spread rate in Russia fell to 0.95 on Thursday, which is a record low since May 27, according to TASS estimates based on the anti-coronavirus crisis center’s data.

The spread rate stands at below 1 in three out of ten Russian regions with the highest COVID-19 incidence. In Moscow, the figure dropped to 0.75, while in the Moscow Region, it stood at 0.9 (a new low since March 14) and in Russia’s second largest city St. Petersburg, the spread rate remained at 0.99.

In the Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod Regions, the COVID-19 spread rate amounted to 1, in the Irkutsk and Sverdlovsk Regions, the figure hit 1.01, in the Krasnoyarsk Region, it reached 1.02, in the Rostov Region - 1.05. Furthermore, in the Samara Region, where the COVID-19 daily case tally hit a new high of over 300 since February, the spread rate climbed to 1.07.

The coronavirus spread rate indicates the average number of people that one person can infect before isolation. Along with other criteria, this figure is used to determine, whether the regions are ready to lift the restrictive measures introduced last spring to combat the pandemic. Currently, the spread rate is particularly applied in terms of the decisions on holding mass events in the region.

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