Moscow Authorities Hope to Minimize Coronavirus Restrictions by Summer

Moscow’s authorities plan to minimize restrictive measures by summer if the present situation with the coronavirus remains, Deputy Moscow Mayor for Economic Policy and Property and Land Relations Vladimir Yefimov reported on Thursday, TASS writes.

“We hope that if the current situation with the spread of the coronavirus infection remains, by summer we will manage to reach minimal restrictions that may stay,” he told the Russia-24 TV channel.

“If one talks about those spheres that haven’t reached last year’s figures yet <...> then, without a doubt, the hotel business will return to previous values when restrictions on movement are lifted. <...> If one talks about cultural public events then the majority of restrictions have already been lifted. We see a gradual resurgence both of the number of visitors, and, accordingly, of revenue of these enterprises over the past month,” the deputy mayor noted.

He also noted that top values of the level of unemployment in Moscow were reached in the summer of 2020 – about 3% or approximately 220,000 people. As of today, the situation in the city is improving, the unemployment rate decreased three-fold compared to last year’s figures. The number of registered unemployed today is about 70,000.

Moscow is in the first place in Russia in terms of the number of coronavirus infections. In all, 972,172 cases of the infection have been detected in the city, including 1,417 over the past 24 hours. Some 889,356 people have recovered, 14,874 patients died.