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MAXIM SHEMETOV / AFP / Getty
Moscow Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that he was hospitalized with a COVID-19 infection, as the number of coronavirus Cases across the country continued to increase steadily.
“Yes, I am ill. I am taking treatment,” Peskov told the Interfax news agency. His wife Tatiana Navka, an Olympic figure skating champion, was also hospitalized with the coronavirus.
“We are under the control of the doctors. Everything is fine,” Navka told the Daily Storm media outlet. She suggested that Peskov may have been infected on the job.
Peskov told the Russian media that his last personal contact with Putin was over a month ago.
The President had been working remotely from his villa on the outskirts of Moscow for a few weeks. He appeared in public on Saturday for the first time since he became isolated, to participate in events commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. On Tuesday, state television showed him holding a one-on-one meeting with Igor Sechin, the head of Russian oil giant Rosneft.
The news of Peskov’s disease came when Russia’s “non-employment regime”, the national closure of non-core businesses aimed at slowing down the spread of the coronavirus, was raised by Putin’s order.
Putin lifted the federal shutdown mandate on Monday, but left regional and provincial governments to decide when to allow companies to reopen. Most of the restrictions have been left in force throughout the country. Moscow, which remains the hardest hit by the outbreak, has allowed construction and industry jobs to resume, but requires people to wear masks and gloves in public places.
Peskov is the latest high-level government official in Russia to test positive for the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova and Construction Minister Vladimir Yakushev have also tested positive since late April.
Russia is now among the countries with the highest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19. On Tuesday, authorities reported 10,899 new infections, bringing the official total to 232,243. The death toll is 2,116, including 107 people who have died in the past 24 hours.
