Russian President Vladimir Putin is isolating himself as a precaution after several members of his inner circle contracted COVID-19, but he has been negative for the disease and is “absolutely healthy,” the Kremlin announced Tuesday.
The 68-year-old strongman, who received the second shot of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in April, decided to isolate himself in consultation with doctors, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He did not say how long Putin would remain in isolation, but assured that the leader would continue to work as usual.
Peskov told reporters Putin is “absolutely healthy” and when asked if the president has tested negative for the virus, he said, “Definitely, yes.”
The spokesman did not say who was infected among Putin’s contacts, only said there were several cases.
A day earlier, the Russian leader met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In addition to meeting the Syrian leader, Putin on Monday greeted the Russian Paralympics and attended military exercises with Belarus.
During his meeting with the athletes, Putin mentioned that “maybe he will have to put in quarantine soon.”
“Even in my circle, there are problems with this COVID,” Putin told the state news agency RIA Novosti. “We have to look at what’s really going on there. I think maybe I should get into quarantine soon myself. A lot of people around me are sick. “
Asked why Putin held public events when he learned there were cases of COVID around him, Peskov said the decision to isolate himself was made after “doctors finished the tests, the procedures.”
The spokesman insisted that “Monday’s acts” endangered “no one’s health”.
Russia’s COVID-19 working group has reported 7.1 million confirmed cases and 194,249 deaths, although reports from the Rosstat government’s statistical service retroactively indicating deaths reveal much higher figures.
The daily death toll in the country remains just under 800, the highest level of the pandemic, but there are hardly any virus restrictions.
With publishing cables