The Government of Russia has developed a number of measures to support the economy in the face of the spread of coronavirus. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told that at the brief meeting with deputy prime ministers on 16, March, TASS reports.
A national hotline to inform citizens about the disease situation in the country as well as an online notification system, including notification via social networks, will be created. 300 billion Rubles are reserved to support the economy and lives of Russian citizens.
It is planned to facilitate supply procedure inside the country and also from abroad. Green channel will be opened at customs on 17, March to provide major retailers with goods of prime necessity. Airline companies and travelling agencies will be granted an extension on taxes payment. The measure might be applied to other spheres, too.
The Prime Minister addressed major corporations, which, in his view, must “use all the resources they have” to stop the spread of coronavirus and take steps to ensure that enterprises operate without interruption. In addition to that, special terms of sick pay for citizens in quarantine will be introduced and incentive payment for medical workers combating the infection will be implemented, including “a bonus pool for doctors who particularly distinguished themselves in response to coronavirus risking their life and limb”.
As to 15, March the number of coronavirus infections in Russia has reached 63 people, increasing by 4 in 24 hours. Three out of all new infections are found in the Moscow Region and one in the Tyumen Region. All of the patients have visited Italy, France, Spain and Switzerland in the past two weeks. According to WHO, by Monday morning the total number of infections worldwide has amounted to 153,517 people, 5375 people have died from the disease (72,469 and 2531 people outside China, respectively).
According to Otkrytie Bank research, only 9% of Russians started buying food and other goods to stock up for a long period of time because of the coronavirus threat. Most part of them belong to the older generation. Over half of all respondents (58%) said, pandemia had not affected their daily life in any way yet. Others replied that they had been using public transport and travelling less and had started paying more attention to hygiene.