MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th April, 2020) � In this digest, we will discuss the increased demand for ginger, dilemmas facing businesses amid the pandemic, Moscow's coronavirus response, and pitfalls of�affordable commercial property.
Russia's antimonopoly watchdog�has received complaints about the increased prices for ginger, lemons and garlic, which some people believe to be effective against the coronavirus.
According to the watchdog, most complaints concern small stores or markets.
The fact these goods are largely imported and coupled with heightened demand and supply restrictions have led to higher prices, Anna Mirochinenko, the antitrust agency's representative, told Sputnik. But prices are likely to go back to normal once imports have been restored, Mirochinenko added.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization says on its website that there is no evidence garlic can protect against the coronavirus. There does not seem to be any official indication that ginger or lemons help either.
BUSINESSES DURING CORONAVIRUS: OPEN OR CLOSE?
Russian regions and businesses are mulling their response to the spread of the coronavirus.� Restrictions are necessary to prevent the spread of the infection but�are at the same time damaging to the economy.
In Khabarovsk Krai, beauticians and hair dressers may be allowed to return to work on April 15, governor Sergei Furgal said Monday.
"We have to think about the sectors that suffer the most but, at the same time, can work without spreading the infection. This concerns the service industry, above all," the governor said.
Beauty parlors and hair dressers may reopen for business if they comply with certain rules � no walk-ins, no more than three people in a room at the same time, individual protection and disinfection.
The GAZ carmaker has resumed production at its plants in Yaroslavl, Moscow region and Nizhny Novgorod. The company will develop a schedule for its other subsidiaries and branches within the week. The company is monitoring the health of its employees and disinfecting all of its facilities, a GAZ representative told Sputnik.
The Mazda Sollers plant in Vladivostok resumed�production on Monday and is taking all the necessary precautions, a company representative told Sputnik. Office employees still work from home, however.
Crimea has resumed some construction projects. To restart work, companies have to submit a request to the regional authorities. Meanwhile, a self-isolation order is in effect through April 12�in the city of Sevastopol, and through April 30 in the rest of Crimea.
MOSCOW BEGAN PREPARING IN FEBRUARY
The Moscow authorities had always expected the city to register many coronavirus cases and began preparing for the eventuality in February, Deputy Mayor Anastasia Rakova said on the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.
As of Monday, Moscow has confirmed 4,484 coronavirus cases out of 6,343 in the whole of Russia.
"At the end of February, taking into account Moscow's links to Europe and ... the increasingly tense situation in Europe, we understood that Moscow would have the cases, there would be quite a lot of them, Moscow would face a serious blow. So in mid-February, we were already getting ready for this and expecting this," the deputy mayor said.
The first cases were imported from Italy, France and Germany, but now the infection is spreading inside the country. Most of the cases are people who have not been abroad recently or been in contact with any new arrivals, Rakova said.
The city has allowed patients with mild coronavirus symptoms to receive treatment at home via regular conferences with doctors. However, the deputy mayor said that Moscow hospitals had enough beds at the moment and could take in COVID-19 patients if they asked to be hospitalized.
"In fact, we actually have a problem with some senior citizens who do not want to go to the hospital and want to stay at home. We try to avoid this, convince them, but for now, the tendency is reversed," Rakova said.
Body temperature�and blood oxygen levels serve as criteria for hospitalization, but senior patients and people with chronic conditions are�hospitalized regardless of their symptoms.�
DEBATE OVER COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
The upper chamber of parliament has recently introduced a bill that would allow people to register a certain type of commercial property as their place of residence.
Commercial properties may look exactly like regular apartments but cost less. For many, they present a chance to buy a place to live in or close to downtown. However, they are regulated by a different set of laws than apartments; they have higher utility bills, and are subject to lighter technical regulations like ceiling height, insulation and soundproofed walls.
In addition, developers are required to ensure there are schools, clinics and other services available when they build a regular apartment building, but there are no such rules for commercial property.
Access to these services may be further complicated by the lack of registration. People in Russia are required to register some address as their official place of residence -- currently this can be done with a regular apartment but not with commercial properties. The official place of residence may be different from where one actually lives, but it becomes important when seeking access to schools and state medical services.
Galina Khovanskaya, the head of the property regulation committee at the lower chamber, said that the law would legitimize machinations in this sector.
"The commercial properties are being sold to people illegally, as a fraud, with the promise to reclassify them as actual apartments and ensure that they have everything that people with actual apartments have. So, they [the developers] are avoiding costs for social infrastructure. Obviously, architects are not planning this pressure on existing [infrastructure.] So the people who suffer are those who live in the apartments [next to such commercial properties]�and expect to have clinics, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, and so on," Khovanskaya told Sputnik.
