Ministry of Health against abolishing or postponing lockdown

He recalled that the fact of introducing strict quarantine restrictions from 8 to 25 January was announced in advance. Besides, according to him, according to epidemiologists, after the New Year, the world expects to see an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.

Stepanov added that also when the lockdown was introduced, there was a seasonal increase in influenza incidence.

"We expect a peak influenza incidence in mid-February. COVID-19 and influenza are two infectious diseases that often give the same complications, often require oxygen therapy, people have pneumonia because of this disease, so we need to unload (medical system – ed.) as much as possible. Moreover, we don't want to receive 17-20-25 thousand (patients per day – ed.) Again, we believe that we really need a strict quarantine from January 8 to 24 to bring down this wave as much as possible," Stepanov said.