The government will no longer send money to the regions for success in the fight against coronavirus

The government of the Russian Federation will no longer send funds from the federal budget to regional authorities for their success in the fight against coronavirus – low incidence rates, coverage of residents with PCR testing and a vaccination campaign. This is the next step on the way out of the pandemic. In fact, the authorities are in no hurry to abandon only one anti-coronavirus measure – a ban on mass events, in particular on actions and pickets.

The government has declared Decree No. 1730 invalid and will stop transferring intergovernmental transfers to regions recognized as “COVID-19-free” territories. Rospotrebnadzor, we recall, initiated on a competitive basis the allocation of budget funds to such entities for “financial support for the development of the healthcare system” in July 2021. The competition was held quarterly, the number of winners and the amount of grants for each subject were established by the federal headquarters for the fight against coronavirus. Applicants for the title of a territory free from COVID-19 had to meet a number of criteria developed by Rospotrebnadzor. Among them is the incidence rate of COVID-19, the coverage of residents of the region with PCR testing, the number of people vaccinated with the first component of the vaccine. The government stated that about 5 billion rubles were allocated for such support. However, which regions eventually received a grant and in what amount, was not publicly disclosed.

Encouragement of distinguished subjects was one of the measures to combat the pandemic. Meanwhile, there are fewer and fewer of them. In May, more than ten regions canceled the high alert regime that had been in place for more than three years due to the coronavirus. These are, in particular, Adygea, Yakutia, Chuvashia, Mordovia, Khakassia, Udmurtia, Sakhalin, Primorye, Khabarovsk Territory, Novgorod, Kostroma, Tula regions. Those regions where the high alert regime has not been lifted, as a rule, retain only one restriction – a ban on mass events. Thus, Vasily Oleinik, deputy head of the Moscow Department of Regional Security and Anti-Corruption, in response to a deputy’s request about when pickets and actions could be held in Moscow again, replied that it was premature to completely cancel anti-epidemiological restrictions, “as evidenced by international experience.”

The World Health Organization, in turn, canceled the state of emergency in connection with the coronavirus in early May. WHO, we note, reported a decrease in mortality from COVID-19 in the world by 63% over the past four weeks (7 thousand deaths). The number of infections over the same period decreased by 44% and amounted to 1.5 million people.

In Russia, the Stopcoronavirus.rf portal now publishes incidence statistics only once a week. According to the latest available data from June 13, the incidence decreased by 20.1% (2 thousand people became infected in seven days), about 10 thousand people recovered (33.5% less compared to the previous week), 113 patients died. In 23 subjects, there was an increase in the number of hospitalizations, and in 14 – more than the national average. The head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, has already warned: the department is waiting for an autumn rise in the incidence and assumes that it will be stronger than the spring one.

The scientific director of the network of clinics for immunorehabilitation and preventive medicine Grand Clinic Olga Shuppo notes that the death rate from coronavirus has indeed decreased. Now the virus, according to her, is more like a seasonal infection, they have learned how to treat it. “In this regard, the need to allocate additional budgets for the treatment of coronavirus has disappeared,” continues Ms. Schuppo. “However, the rehabilitation system needs additional funding to restore immunity and blood vessels. It is from complications after the coronavirus that people die at the present time. A high-quality rehabilitation system has not yet been created, it is available only in the private sector of medicine so far.”

Natalya Kostarnova