The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, justified today that St. Petersburg be one of the headquarters of the Eurocup despite the advance of the coronavirus pandemic and the increasing incidence in the second city of the country.
“First of all, we were obliged to fulfill the commitments assumed as the State to organize these important sporting events,” he said during the annual program Línea Directa con los Ciudadano.
Since mid-June, coinciding with the start of the Eurocup on St. Petersburg, the city is besieged by a third wave of covid-19, mainly due to the Indian variant of the coronavirus.
In total, in Russia 21,042 new cases of coronavirus were detected in the last day, 1,503 in Saint Petersburg.
The country also added a new record of deaths from the disease, with 669 deaths in the last 24 hours, 111 of them in the former capital of the tsars.
Doctors consulted by Efe called “genocide” the decision of the authorities to go ahead with the tournament and other public events when the hospitals do not provide enough and the sick crowd in the corridors.
The Finnish health authorities detected 80 positives for covid-19 among Finnish fans who were tested at the border upon their return from Saint Petersburg, where the Nordic country played its last match of the European Championship against Belgium.
The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) warned that these data are preliminary and the real number of infections could increase, so it asked fans who traveled to Russia to avoid social contacts and take a second PCR test after 72 hours.
The city council is considering various measures to stop the spread of the virus, but the local press suggests that this plan could only come into effect after the European Championship.
The fan zone, where Belgian, Polish, Swedish and Slovak fans gathered before the matches of the first phase will have its doors open to receive Spanish and Swiss behind the extraordinary Cathedral of Spilled Blood, although the Capacity for 3,000 people and they do not serve food.