Moscow plans to earmark 8.5 billion rubles ($135.7 million) for the construction of a new coronavirus hospital as the Russian capital continues to detect new cases, the Znak.com news website reported Wednesday.
The funds will go toward constructing the building on the city’s outskirts and will not be used for the purchase of medical equipment, Znak cited an unnamed source close to City Hall as saying.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced the construction of a new coronavirus hospital in southwest Moscow on Tuesday. It will become the third medical facility assigned to treat patients infected with the virus in the Russian capital.
Neither Sobyanin’s announcement nor his draft decree cited by Znak.com specifies when the new hospital will be built.
Znak.com reported, however, that the draft decree orders sewage treatment and heating systems to be installed at the facility within a month.
City authorities said Wednesday that 1,000 people who had come into contact or traveled with Moscow’s nine coronavirus patients have been placed under medical observation. The details of 700 others who had since left Moscow were forwarded to the other Russian regions, they added.
Russia has so far reported a total of 20 coronavirus cases, most of which were contracted by people who had recently visited Italy.
Sobyanin announced a “high alert regime” last week, ordering self-isolation for Russians returning from hotspots China, South Korea, Iran, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.