Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that he was hospitalized with a COVID-19 infection, as the number of coronavirus cases across the country continued mounting steadily.
“Yes, I am sick. I am taking a treatment,” Peskov told the Interfax news agency. His wife Tatiana Navka, an Olympic champion figure skater, was also hospitalized with the coronavirus.
“We are under the doctors’ control. Everything is all right,” Navka told the Daily Storm media outlet. She suggested that Peskov might have become infected at work.
Peskov told Russian media that his last personal contact with Putin was more than a month ago.
The president had been working remotely from his villa outside Moscow for a few weeks. He appeared in public on Saturday for the first time since isolating himself, to take part in events commemorating the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. On Tuesday, state television showed him holding a one-on-one meeting with Igor Sechin, the head of Russian oil giant Rosneft.
The news of Peskov’s illness came as Russia’s “non-working regime” — the national shutdown of non-essential businesses aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus — was lifted on Putin’s orders.
Putin lifted the federal lockdown mandate on Monday, but left it up to regional and provincial governments to decide when to allow businesses to reopen. Most of the restrictions have been left in place across the country. Moscow, which remains the worst-hit by the outbreak, has allowed industry and construction work to resume, but is requiring people to wear masks and gloves in public places.
Peskov is the latest senior government official in Russia to test positive for the coronavirus.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova and Construction Minister Vladimir Yakushev have also tested positive since the end of April.
Russia is now among the countries with the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases. On Tuesday, officials reported 10,899 new infections, bringing the official total to 232,243. The death toll is 2,116, including 107 people who died over the past 24 hours.
