Russia resumes flights with more countries amid COVID outbreak

MOSCOW – Russia announced on Tuesday that it would resume authorization to travel by air to Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mongolia from December 1.

The government’s coronavirus task force said Russia will also lift remaining restrictions on flights to Cuba, Mexico and Qatar, and increase the number of flights to Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Vietnam from December 1. In total, Russia so far has resumed flights with more than 60 countries.

The announcement comes as daily coronavirus cases in Russia and deaths from COVID-19 remain at record levels and less than 40% of the country’s population of 146 million has been fully vaccinated. The task force on Tuesday reported 36,818 new confirmed cases and 1,240 deaths, the latter just one below the record number of deaths per day.

The state task force reported more than 9 million confirmed infections and 257,837 deaths from the pandemic, by far the highest death toll in Europe. Some experts believe that the real toll is actually higher.

Travel between Russia and some Western countries has been complicated because the World Health Organization, the European Union and the United States have not yet recognized vaccines developed in Russia and vaccines developed by the West do not. are not available in Russia.

Earlier this month, US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer received approval to test its experimental antiviral pill Paxlovid in Russia, according to the state registry. Ninety people from several Russian cities are expected to participate in the drug trial.

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