MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 31st May, 2020) In the last digest before the summer takes over, we recall Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's temporary loss of taste and smell due to COVID-19, discuss how May 2020 became the rainiest month in the history of meteorological observations in the city, and finally share Crimea's expectations about the start of the holiday season.
WHEN STRAWBERRIES TASTE LIKE CHICKEN
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who had tested positive for the coronavirus diseases in mid-May, spoke about his experiences of being sick, including the loss of taste and smell.
"You can compare it [COVID-19] to the flu. It does not start very dramatically. On the day when I apparently contracted the virus, I spent half an hour playing sports in the gym and running for 7 kilometers [4 miles], felt a surge of strength and enjoyed my physical and mental state," Peskov said in a televised interview.
The next day, according to the Kremlin spokesman, he felt feverish.
"It's a very unusual feeling when you lose your sense of smell and taste ... you cannot tell the difference between strawberries and chicken," Peskov added.
He also noted that he stopped shaking hands due to the epidemic.
"As sad as it sounds, I have already learned to not reach out to greet someone," Peskov said.
This May became the rainiest month in the history of meteorological observations in the Russian capital of Moscow, the leading employee of the Phobos weather center, Mikhail Leus, told Sputnik.
"By 9.00 a.m. [06:00 GMT] there were another 21 millimeters of rainfall recorded in Moscow, therefore the cyclone, which German experts dubbed Iseult, brought us 82 millimeters of precipitation, taking the total amount of rainfall in May to 147 millimeters, which is almost three monthly norms. May of 2020 became the wettest and rainiest in the history of meteorological observations in the capital," Leus said.
He noted that the rainy weather in Moscow will continue in the coming days.
HOLIDAY SEASON IN CRIMEA DEPENDS ON EPIDEMIOLOGICAL SITUATION
The key to a successful holiday season in Crimea is the resumption of transport links with the peninsula, determined by the low COVID-19 incidence, the chairman of the Crimean parliament's tourism committee, Alexey Chernyak, told Sputnik on Sunday.
"We should keep in mind the bookings that are there since April, and people do not know whether to cancel them or not. It is not yet clear as to when the interregional traffic will be launched - railway and air. It is all depending just on that; if there is no traffic, what [hotel] occupancy are we even talking about? So far we have not even started the first stage [of opening sanatoriums with a medical license], so it is difficult to say anything concrete about the holiday season," Chernyak said.
Crimea has so far registered 385 COVID-19 cases, and 229 people have recovered.
