Tourists who left for the time of lockdown abroad were accused of importing new covid strains

As Professor Butenko said in an interview with Sputnik radio, the effect of the introduction of non-working days will be, but its indicators could have been higher, "if it were not for the absolutely stupid desire of some people to travel now to Turkey, Egypt and other countries".

The expert believes that by going abroad during the lockdown, people risk their health and can become a source of COVID-19. The virologist called this reckless behavior of the Russians "bungling".

“At the same time, tourists run the risk of bringing to Russia not only already known strains of coronavirus, but also new variants”, - Lenta.ru notes.

And then scientists will have to work on eliminating the consequences of the importation of these strains.

Earlier it was reported that from October 30 to November 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced non-working days in the country. The reason was a sharp increase in the number of covid infections and a rapid increase in mortality.

While severe restrictions began in the country, the authorities did not ban citizens from traveling abroad, which they certainly took advantage of. After the announcement of the lockdown, the number of applications for overseas tours increased by a third. About 50% of people went to Turkey (the average cost of a tour is 80 thousand rubles), about 25% - to Egypt (102 thousand rubles).

To stop the infection, 85% of the population must develop high levels of antibodies to covid. However, so far this level does not exceed 45%.

The total number of covid infections in the country since the beginning of the pandemic was 8,633,643, with daily mortality reaching a record 1195 cases.