Russia has recorded yet another daily record of confirmed COVID-19 cases, prompting the Kremlin to order most people to remain home and not report for work beginning later this week due to an increase in infections.
On Monday, the Russian government's coronavirus task force reported 37,930 new confirmed cases in 24 hours, the most since the outbreak began.
In the same time period, the task force reported 1,069 more COVID-19 fatalities, significantly less than the previous high of 1,075 set over the weekend.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an order prohibiting Russians from working between October 30 and November 7, when the country will be on holiday.
Except for those maintaining critical infrastructure and a few others, most state organizations and private businesses are required to suspend operations at that time.
As the number of virus cases rises, Putin has issued new COVID-19 restrictions. Putin said the nonworking vacation might start early and be prolonged beyond November 7 in certain part of the country's 85 regions where the situation is extremely dire.
On Monday, six of them - Novgorod, Kursk, Nizhny, Novgorod, Perm, Samara, and Voronezh - began their immunization.
Moscow officials ordered the vaccinations to begin on Thursday, with gyms, most entertainment venues, and most retailers, as well as kindergartens and schools, closing for 11 days.
During that time, restaurants and cafes will only accept takeout or delivery orders. Food stores and pharmacies will be able to remain open.
Theaters, museums, music halls, and other places will only let individuals with digital codes on their smartphones to verify vaccination or previous illness, a practice that will continue beyond November 7.
Putin has reportedly instructed local officials to order unvaccinated people over the age of 60 to stay at home and to close nightclubs and other places of amusement.
Russian authorities are hoping that the downtime will help prevent the spread of the disease by keeping people out of offices and off public transit, where mask regulations have been lax.
Overall, Russia has recorded almost 8.2 million confirmed viral infections and 231,669 deaths, considerably outnumbering any other European country and ranking fifth in the globe behind the United States, India, Brazil, and Mexico.
