The decision to deliver the speech was made after a meeting of Russia’s ad hoc body charged with dealing with Covid-19, the Kremlin said. In addition to chairing it on Tuesday, the president also visited Moscow’s primary hospital for carriers of the killer disease.

The number of coronavirus cases in Russia stands at 658 as of Wednesday, after 163 new patients tested positive. The pandemic is mostly localized in Moscow, but some cases were registered in 19 other parts of Russia.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who also leads the anti-coronavirus task force, is concerned that some cases may have remained undetected outside of the capital, where the testing and tracing of infection chains is less robust.

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