MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin is
taking precautions to protect himself against coronavirus, the
Kremlin said on Wednesday, as Moscow authorities launched a
smartphone app designed to track people who have been ordered to
stay home because of the virus.
Putin will hold a government meeting later on Wednesday by
video conference, the Kremlin said, a day after a doctor who met
him last week said he had been diagnosed with the highly
infectious virus.
Denis Protsenko last week gave Putin a tour of Moscow's main
coronavirus hospital and shook hands with the Russian leader.
Protsenko is now self-isolating in his office.
The Kremlin, which has said that everything is fine with
Putin's health, said the president was now keeping his distance
from other people and preferred to work remotely.
Asked if Putin had changed the way he greeted people and was
now keeping a distance, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said:
"Of course, now everyone is maintaining a social distance.
Everyone is doing this."
'DIGITAL CONCENTRATION CAMP'
Russia expanded its coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday to
cover more of its sprawling territory as the official tally of
infections rose to 2,777, a one-day increase of 440. Twenty-four
people have so far died in Russia, authorities say.
Moscow, a bustling metropolis of more than 12.5 million that
has become the epicentre of Russia's outbreak, has come to an
eerie standstill since announcing a partial lockdown on Sunday.
Residents can leave their homes only to buy food or medicine
nearby, get urgent medical treatment, walk the dog or empty
their bins. Red Square was largely empty on Tuesday except for
police who stopped occasional passersby to check their papers.
On Wednesday, a Moscow city official said authorities had
developed a smartphone app for residents who have contracted the
virus that would allow officials to monitor their movements. The
app will be available from Thursday, the official, Eduard
Lysenko, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station.
The Russian capital is also preparing to roll out a QR-code
system where each resident that registers online will be
assigned a unique code that they can show to police officers if
stopped when going to the shop or the chemist, he said.
Both measures appeared in an unconfirmed draft blueprint for
a city-wide surveillance system that was circulated online this
week. Kremlin critics said it risked turning Moscow into a
"digital concentration camp".
Lysenko said that anyone without a device that is able to
download the tracking app would be lent one by city authorities
that they would later return.
Eight southern Russian regions rolled out lockdown measures
similar to Moscow on Wednesday, meaning that over two thirds of
Russia's more than 80 regions are now in a state of partial
lockdown.