Just a picture of what is going on in Moscow.
Number of infected – 199 in Russia increasing daily by about 50, in Moscow one hospital is specially designated for confirmed coronovirus patients, one more is reserved for patients with pneumonia (at the moment accepts patients without coronovirus but with heavy pneumonia), starting from today at least one more huge hospital today is designated to accept all the patients with high temperature.
Local quarantine – not so strict so far. Though they were talking about some bans on entering Moscow, it has not been done so far.
Transport – Everything working in a standard mode. Number of people in Metro (underground) is a bit less than before, but not so much. Some people are working distantly from home, some have just limited unnecessary movements around the city. Very few wearing masks (yesterday I was the only one in a metro car in a mask 🙂
Work – about 15% of employees were switched to a distant mode (as a result, demand for laptops increased several times 🙂 But most of people still work in a normal mode.
Grocery shops and supermarkets – shopping activity was rather high, but not extremely high. I visited three nearby big supermarkets, in each I had 3-4 people in front of me in queue, which is close to normal. Some items are in shortage, but very limited number of them. For the reasons unclear to me, in time of crisis, Russian always start to buy huge quantities of buckwheat. I do not see any any logical reasons for that, taking into account that in everyday life buckwheat is far from being the main preference of Russians. But that has always been the case during all my life :))) So, as usual, buckwheat was shopped away almost everywhere. Some shortages could be seen with chicken meat and eggs, salt, pasta and toilet paper. They are not missing at all, but the choice is limited. The situation very much varies from one supermarket to another. It seems, that management of a precise shop matters much.
Schools – closed at least for three weeks, pupils study on line, schools arrange distant study with webinars etc.
Hospitals – in some of them I have seen that everything is perfectly arranged: all the staff is wearing masks, caps, gloves, temperature of everybody is being measured at entrance, special entrance for thous with temperature is arranged. In others the picture is not that good. It seems that, as in case with supermarkets, it very much depends on management of a specific hospital.
Support of business – the government announced some measures of support for business, especially for small business, including tax vacation and subsidies. But it seems they can give a small chance for business affected not to die, but they are hardly going to give a push to new start-ups.
General mood – from deep concern to total ignore, but most of people still somewhere in between. Concerned, but not extremely. Ignoring, but not totally and still taking some measures and precautions.
