MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has instructed the commanders of the military districts to urgently allocate liquefied oxygen to the regions of the country in order to combat Covid-19, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry said that this is being done on Russian President Vladimir Putin's instructions "due to the aggravation of the epidemiological situation in the country caused by the coronavirus infection."
"Medical institutions of 14 Russian constituent entities have already received 240.8 tonnes of liquefied oxygen from military units," the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The Russian military said that on Thursday, October 21, another 27 tonnes of liquefied oxygen will be transferred to seven Russian constituent entities, namely, Bashkortostan, Volgograd, Kirov, Moscow, Smolensk, Tver and Ulyanovsk regions.
As reported earlier on Wednesday, Putin signed a decree introducing non-working days in Russia from October 30 through November 7, with wages preserved for employees.
The document, which was published on the Kremlin's website, said that depending on the sanitary and epidemiological situation in various Russian regions, their heads have the right to introduce additional non-working days before October 30 or after November 7, with salaries preserved for employees.
These measures were declared amid a spike in the incidence of coronavirus in Russia. In 27 regions, the occupancy of beds in hospitals with coronavirus patients is over 90%, this figure exceeds 95% in seven regions of the country, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said.
According to a report of the operative coronavirus response headquarters published on Wednesday, the daily growth in new cases of coronavirus in Russia reached 34,073, and 1,028 patients died over the past day, which is a new all-time high of fatalities.