Coronavirus completely displaces measles in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Not a single case of measles has been recorded in St. Petersburg since May of last year, head of the epidemiological supervision department of the St. Petersburg branch of Russian consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor Irina Chkhindzheria told Interfax on Tuesday.

"As soon as the coronavirus infection began to spread, measles subsided in our country, since May of last year. Before that, we had an upsurge for the third year," Chkhindzheria said.

The incidence of measles in St. Petersburg had been rising for three consecutive years, reaching a hundred cases in 2019.

In 2020, Rospotrebnadzor reported 49 cases of the measles, including 32 in children. At the same time, half of the sick children were under the age of two. Almost all of the patients, or 91%, had not been vaccinated against the measles.