Putin takes coronavirus precautions

Monitoring Desk

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin is taking precautions to protect himself against coronavirus, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, as Moscow authorities launched a smartphone app designed to track people who have been ordered to stay home because of the virus. Putin will hold a government meeting later on Wednesday by video conference, the Kremlin said, a day after a doctor who met him last week said he had been diagnosed with the highly infectious virus.

Denis Protsenko last week gave Putin a tour of Moscow’s main coronavirus hospital and shook hands with the Russian leader.

Protsenko is now self-isolating in his office. The Kremlin, which has said that everything is fine with Putin’s health, said the president was now keeping his distance from other people and preferred to work remotely. Asked if Putin had changed the way he greeted people and was now keeping a distance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:

“Of course, now everyone is maintaining a social distance. Everyone is doing this.”

Russia expanded its coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday to cover more of its sprawling territory as the official tally of infections rose to 2,777, a one-day increase of 440. Twenty-four people have so far died in Russia, authorities say. Moscow, a bustling metropolis of more than 12.5 million that has become the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak, has come to an eerie standstill since announcing a partial lockdown on Sunday. (Reuters)