All Covid-19 restrictions lifted in Russia, there are only recommendations - Rospotrebnadzor head

MOSCOW. June 1 (Interfax) - Russia has lifted practically every restriction imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic, and there are no direct bans at this point, head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) Anna Popova said.

"What you describe as restrictions, we have scrapped everything at the level of Russia under supervision of the operative headquarters. We have no restrictions in the literal sense of this word left, what is left is recommendations," Popova said at a plenary meeting of the State Duma on Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has ended the Covid-19 emergency "but it cannot cancel the pandemic, the pandemic was, is and, unfortunately, will continue for now, because cases are still being reported by many countries," Popova said.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on May 5 that Covid-19 was over as a public health emergency but noted the remaining threat of Covid-19 infections.

The WHO said later that it defined Covid-19 as an entrenched public health problem and would provide updated guidelines on its containment.