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Putin Gives Vaccine-Hesitant Russian Population a Week Off Work to Fight COVID

This weekend, over 1,000 Russians lost their lives to the virus in one day for the first time during the pandemic.

Vladimir Putin has granted all Russians a week off work in an attempt to reverse the dramatic increase in COVID deaths this month. Russia’s daily virus mortality rates have been going in the wrong direction since the start of October and, over the weekend, over 1,000 Russians lost their lives to the virus in one day for the first time during the pandemic. According to the Associated Press, Putin has now given his blessing to the Cabinet’s proposal to let people stay off work from Oct. 30 and into the following week. In some areas, where the situation is most dire, the vacation could begin this weekend. The plan is to keep Russians out of their offices while the virus is circulating so freely—only about 32 percent of the country’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.