Cases of Covid-19, flu, other viral respiratory infections down in Russia over past week - watchdog

MOSCOW. March 12 (Interfax) - The number of new cases of flu and other viral respiratory infectious diseases in Russia has decreased by 16.4% and those of Covid-19 decreased by 11.6% over the past week, the Russian public health and consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said on Tuesday.

"The number of patients diagnosed with flu and other viral respiratory infections declined by 16.4% to around 677,000 over the past week compared to the previous week. The number of cases was higher than the national average in 45 regions," Rospotrebnadzor said on Telegram.

Around 16% of those cases were diagnosed in Moscow, the Moscow region, and St. Petersburg.

"Over 23,000 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in Russia during the tenth week of 2024, which is 11.6% fewer than over the previous week," it said.

The Omicron variant was prevalent among all Covid-19 cases seen in Russia last week, it said.