Over 85,000 coronavirus patients remain hospitalized in Russia — health minister

Russia’s sanitary watchdog said earlier that new daily coronavirus cases were on the rise only in one region of the country

Over 85,000 coronavirus patients remain hospitalized in Russia, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko told reporters on Wednesday.

"Although new coronavirus cases have been steadily declining globally and nationwide, the number of patients is still high, Qazet.az reports. More than 85,000 COVID-19 patients remain hospitalized and nearly 700,000 are currently under medical observation," he specified.

"I would like to point out that March and April will be decisive in terms of how the coronavirus situation unfolds and it would be good to use the time to get booster vaccine shots," Murashko noted.

Russia’s sanitary watchdog said earlier that new daily coronavirus cases were on the rise only in one region of the country. Russia’s overall new cases dropped by 41.4% in the past week.