Moscow will not return to a full coronavirus lockdown like it did in spring as long as residents abide by current restrictions, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Monday as new cases continued to rise.
The epicenter of Russia’s Covid-19 outbreak, Moscow confirmed 5,376 new infections in the past 24 hours and almost 367,000 since the start of the pandemic. The city’s daily cases have seen a nearly sevenfold increase in the past month, though the latest figures are still below the all-time high of 6,703 cases confirmed on May 11.
“I don’t see the need for more stringent measures, although specific targeted decisions can’t be ruled out,” Mayor Sobyanin wrote on his website.
“Extreme measures are curfew, complete movement ban, entry and exit ban and the closure of almost all businesses,” Sobyanin said. “These are absolutely unacceptable and impossible for us.”
The government imposed unpopular self-isolation rules and travel restrictions in late March, which it gradually lifted in June.
In recent weeks, Muscovites older than 65 and those suffering from chronic illnesses have been strongly advised to stay home, employers have been required to switch 30% of their staff to remote work and middle- and high schoolers have resumed distance learning.
City Hall has also stepped up the enforcement of mask and glove rules in the Moscow metro and required clubs and bars to register visitors and scan their QR codes in order to slow the spread of Covid-19.
Sobyanin wrote that around half of Moscow’s 12.5 million residents are now in self-isolation, allowing the other half to travel to work with a reduced risk of getting infected.
“The optimal strategy is to find a middle way between closing the city and completely abandoning restrictive measures,” the mayor said.
Russia has confirmed a total of 1,415,316 coronavirus cases, the fourth-highest number in the world.
Moscow Metro Eyes Pay-by-Face Tech in Spring 2021
The Moscow Metro is expected to roll out what City Hall says will be the world’s first fare payment system based on facial recognition starting next spring.
Moscow’s Deputy Mayor in charge of transportation Maxim Liksutov said in a weekly column Friday that Muscovites are “no longer impressed” by the ever-expanding contactless options for paying one’s fare, including bank cards and smartphones.
“The metro is moving to a new level: Face Pay,” Liksutov wrote. “We’re actively setting it up and testing it, and will try to equip at least one turnstile with this function at every metro station next spring.”
He noted that no metro system in the world has deployed the face-pay system at scale yet and the Russian capital has “every chance” to get there first.
“Imagine the turnstile opening its doors in front of you,” Liksutov said, describing how the system would work.
“Sounds a bit fantastic, but this is our immediate future.”
Facial recognition technology will also be deployed as a surveillance tool in addition to being used to boost convenience for passengers. The Moscow Metro reportedly plans to place around 12,300 facial recognition cameras in around 1,500 subway cars by the end of 2020.
Authorities in the Russian capital have already deployed facial recognition technology across a network of almost 200,000 surveillance cameras throughout the city to identify criminal suspects.
In July, China’s southwestern city of Guiyang rolled out face-scanning payment at its subway and bus systems via a smartphone app.
In August, a Los Angeles company introduced the first facial recognition payment in the United States at restaurants outside its headquarters.
