MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the government to prepare an action plan over the next week to combat the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Putin said it was vital to the source of medicine, oxygen and hospital beds.
“First of all, it is mandatory to monitor the effectiveness of tests and vaccines, to use transparent algorithms to slow the spread of infection,” he said Tuesday at an investment forum.
Russia suffered its deadliest month from COVID-19 in October, before the emergence of the new Omicron strain, and was forced to impose a week-old national office closure in early November.
Cases and deaths have declined from their still-high peaks. On Tuesday, the Coronavirus Task Force reported 33,860 new cases and 1,209 deaths in the past 24 hours.
Russia has still reported cases of the Omicron variant. The country has recorded more than 9. 6 million COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic and a total of 275,193 deaths.
Puin said the new strain has called for customer consultation on the global economic recovery and the importance of the mutual popularity of vaccines and vaccination certificates.
The Russian sputnik V vaccine is awaiting approval from the World Health Organization.
(Report via Vladimir Soldatkin and Tom Balforth; written via Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Mark Trevelyan, edited via Angus MacSwan)