St. Petersburg Nears 'Red Line' on Covid, Authorities Doing Everything Possible - Kremlin

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th December, 2020) St. Petersburg is nearing a very dangerous situation in terms of the coronavirus, the authorities are doing everything in their power to prevent it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

City Governor Alexander Beglov said recently that St. Petersburg was extremely close to a full lockdown. According to the governor, there would be enough beds in Covid hospitals until the year, but if mass gatherings were left unchecked, all of the city's hospitals may have to be turned into infectious disease clinics.

St. Petersburg restaurants and cafes will be closed between December 30 and January 3. Their hours will be limited in the run-up to the winter holidays and during the 10-day holidays themselves. Some cafes and bars have said they would not comply with the restrictions �their addresses can be found on the so-called resistance map.

"We can see that St. Petersburg is very close to the red line in this epidemic, unfortunately. The situation is very tense there, and the regional authorities are doing everything possible to counter this huge epidemic wave. And in this situation, some sort of restaurant protest is just lack of respect for the people," Peskov said.

The spokesman added that the Kremlin could not interfere in this situation, as it was the prerogative of the city authorities.

"Of course, creating some resistance movements, these restaurant movements, they end up resisting not the regional authorities but people, whose lives they endanger," Peskov said.