The government of Russia has initially responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with preventive measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 in the country, which involved imposing quarantines, carrying raids on potential virus carriers, and using facial recognition to impose quarantine measures. Measures to prevent a crisis in Russia include banning the export of medical masks, random checks on the Moscow Metro, and cancellation of large-scale events by schools. The Russian government has also taken measures to prevent foreign citizens from heavily affected countries from visiting Russia. Local governments have also responded to the pandemic by imposing their own preventive measures in their communities.
Background
On 12 January, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, who had initially come to the attention of the WHO on 31 December 2019. Compared to SARS of 2003, the case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower, but the incubation period and transmission have been significantly greater, resulting in a significant total death toll.
On 31 January, first two cases in the country were confirmed, one in Tyumen, Tyumen Oblast, and another one in Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai. Both were Chinese nationals. There were no other confirmed cases until 2 March when the first case in Moscow was confirmed. On 19 March, the first death of a patient with confirmed COVID-19 was reported in Moscow. The victim was identified in the media as Valentina Zubareva, professor at the Gubkin University, she had contracted the disease in Russia. The first two confirmed deaths were recorded on 25 March in Moscow.
National measures
The Russian consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor advised tourists to refrain from visiting Wuhan and stay away from Chinese zoos and markets selling animals and seafood. The agency also said that development of a vaccine against the virus was underway, relying on the WHO's recommendations.
A total of 144 Russians were evacuated from Wuhan, the initial centre of the outbreak, and were quarantined in Tyumen Oblast for two weeks from 5 February.
On 24 March, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin told President Putin at a meeting that "a serious situation is unfolding" and that the relatively low number of confirmed cases could be due to a low level of testing, saying that "there are far more people who are infected" and that the number of people in Moscow suspected of having the coronavirus was about 500.
A number of venues and parks in Russia including Crocus Expo, Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy and Patriot Park in Moscow and Lenexpo in Saint Petersburg were turned into temporary hospitals.
Testing
On 24 January, the first testing systems were developed and deployed to laboratories around the country.
As of 23 March, Russia had 4 testing systems and had carried out over 165 thousand tests for the virus which is among the highest testing numbers in the world. Two private lab companies started testing on 26 March. According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, as of 25 March 141 state laboratories were conducting tests in 79 federal subjects. There are plans to increase the number of reference centres across the country to 15. On 27 March, the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor) registered two more test systems. In Moscow on 21 March the average of those tested was low at 35 years and starting to rise to 37–39 years.
On 9 April, Russia passed the 1 million test mark and in addition to the laboratories of Rospotrebnadzor 200 state medical laboratories and 22 private laboratories are carrying out testing. There is a drive to further expand testing with any laboratory being able to carry out tests by submitting a notification to the central website.
On 27 April, Russia passed the 3 million test mark. On 28 April Anna Popova head of Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare (Roszdravnadzor) in a presidential update stated that there were now 506 laboratories testing and that 45% of those tested have no symptoms with the number having pneumonia reducing from 25% to 20% and only 5% of patients with a severe form. 40% of infections were from family members. The speed of people reporting illness has improved from 6 days to the day people find symptoms. Antibody testing was carried out on 3,200 Moscow doctors and 20% have immunity.
Russia continued to have the 2nd highest rate of testing in the world with 4.1m tests at 3 May, 5.2m tests at 9 May, 6.1m tests at 14 May, 7.1m tests on 18 May, 9m tests on 26 May and 10m tests on 29 May.