The first wave of Covid-19 mainly hit the capital and St. Petersburg. The second affects the provinces, where hospitals are severely short of resources, such as in Petrozavodsk, Karelia. A winter without snow in the region 700 kilometers north of Moscow. The 120 IC beds will soon not be enough to treat everyone with more than 400 new cases per day, according to official statistics.

In Russia, they still feel they are leading the way with Sputnik V, a vaccine that was registered in early August, although testing had only been done on a small scale. As early as June, the Russian government announced that scientists had succeeded in developing a vaccine that should be the much-needed response to the pandemic. The Russian vaccine was initially only allowed for people in the 18 to 60 age group.

The Russian Ministry of Health now also authorizes the Sputnik V vaccine for the vaccination of people over 60 years old. Health Minister Mikhail Marshko announced this Saturday on the TV channel Rossiya 24, the state press agency TASS reports. In Russia with its 146 million inhabitants, more than 800.000 people have already been vaccinated against the new corona virus, Mikhail Marshko said last Saturday. More than three million people have been infected in the vast country since the start of the pandemic. On Saturday, authorities reported more than 26.300 new infections in 24 hours. 

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