COVID-19: Russia to deploy drones and helicopters to enforce lockdown

Russia’s National Guard will monitor compliance with tough measures imposed in response to the pandemic during holidays this week.

The use of military technology follows a recorded rise in Covid-associated deaths of 58 in the past 24 hours, taking the official death count to 1,280.

As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 134,687, Russia is now recording more new infections than any European country.

Front-line medical workers have been hit hard with the Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin admitting around 2,000 suffering from coronavirus in the capital city.

Today it also emerged a third Russian doctor has plunged from a hospital window after complaining about medics facing intolerable coronavirus pressures.

There is concern that warm spring weather and a string of holidays could draw people in large numbers to leave home and gather in woodland parks.

Moscow has emerged as a hotspot for the virus in Russia, with the mayor earlier estimating from screening results that 2 per cent of the population has been hit – more than a quarter of a million people.

More than half of the new deaths were in Moscow – some 34.

‘About 1,000 people are currently ill, another 1,000 have recovered,’ Sobyanin said.

President Putin says the situation remains ‘very difficult’ with another 200,000-plus under medical supervision, suspected of contracting the disease in Russia.