Russia’s coronavirus tally nears 100,000 milestone

Russia’s nationwide tally of confirmed coronavirus cases neared the 100,000 mark on Wednesday after 5,841 new cases of the virus were registered overnight along with a record daily rise in the death toll.

Russia, the world’s largest country by territory, has been on lockdown since President Vladimir Putin announced the closure of most public spaces in late March.

It this week overtook China and Iran in the number of confirmed cases. The figures mean Russia now ranks eighth worldwide for the number of confirmed cases, though it has so far recorded far fewer deaths than many of the hardest-hit countries.

The nationwide case tally now stands at 99,399, the country’s coronavirus crisis response center said Wednesday. It said 108 people diagnosed with the novel coronavirus had died in the last 24 hours, a record daily rise. That means the official overall death toll now stands at 972 people.

Authorities began recording a sharp rise in cases this month.

Russia is now in its fifth week of a lockdown that, together with the collapse of oil prices, has put the economy on course for a 4%-6% contraction, according to the central bank.

Putin, addressing the nation on television on Tuesday, said the lockdown measures would have to be rolled over for another two weeks. He warned the outbreak’s peak was still ahead.

“The situation is still very difficult,” said Putin. “We are facing a new and perhaps the most intense stage in countering the epidemic.”

Russian opposition activists have staged an online protest against lockdowns. Participants in Tuesday’s video call charged that the government has used the coronavirus outbreak to impose illegal restrictions violating people’s rights.

Opposition politician Dmitry Gudkov denounced an electronic pass system introduced in Moscow as a “digital concentration camp.”

He also criticized the Kremlin for failing to offer tangible support to private businesses.

A partial economic shutdown ordered by Putin has kept most Russians home since late March. The measure was to expire Thursday, but Russian President extended it through May 11.

Since Moscow imposed its lockdown to slow new coronavirus infections, as many as 500 hungry men and women visit a darkened tent in the courtyard of a Moscow church in search of a hot meal on some days, volunteers say.

The city of 12 million has only one government shelter, so its homeless have long had to rely on charity. They used to be able to count on workers at restaurants setting aside leftovers, but this ended when they closed with the lockdown. With residents shut up in their apartments, homeless people are also not getting the street handouts they often used to buy food.

“The decrease in people traffic in Moscow has been a huge blow to the homeless population,” says Roman Skorosov, the Rescue Hangar coordinator.

Many are even struggling to find hot water or a toilet since shopping centers closed, charity workers told Agence France-Presse (AFP). And their numbers are growing.

“There are a lot of newly homeless, people who worked odd jobs without contracts and lived in cheap hostels,” Skorosov said. “They are now on the streets.”

When Moscow’s mayor ordered the lockdown in March, activist Alania Zhurkina reached out to the city government, calling for a strategy to help at-risk homeless people self-isolate.

The energetic redhead who directs the House of Friends charity received a reply one month later that the city operates a shelter.

That facility has a capacity of about 1,000, while the number of homeless in Moscow is estimated at some 15,000, Zhurkina says.

Many in need are not local and have fallen through the cracks of unemployment support.

“It’s not their fault that in Russia you often need to come to Moscow to find a job,” she says.

Zhurkina has taken matters into her own hands, arranging to rent cheap hostels that normally house Moscow’s temporary laborers.

Her “Shelter” project already has a waiting list of 200 people and she launched a second hostel this week.

Even though her organization’s funds are drying up, Zhurkina says she will not bother writing to the city again for help.

“What am I going to do, wait another 30 days for a reply?” she says. “The city has forgotten that homeless people exist.”