Russian medical experts prepare to check passengers arriving from Italy at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport this month.
By Richard StoneFor weeks, Russia seemed to have dodged a bullet. As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) raged just across the border in China, Russia was virtually untouched, reporting just seven confirmed infections as recently as 10 March.
Since then, the number has risen fast: Russia has now reported 840 infections, about two-thirds of them in the Moscow region.Some health care providers have questioned whether Russia truly kept the novel coronavirus at bay.
Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of Russia’s Alliance of Doctors trade union, has pointed out that pneumonia cases in Moscow spiked in January—they were 37%