Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing tallied up Russia’s economic loss from the novel coronavirus infection at more than 997 bln rubles ($13.6 bln), according to the state report ‘On the State of Sanitary and Epidemiological safety of the population of the Russian Federation in 2020’ released on the regulator’s website on Monday.
"In summing up these budget expenditures due to the spread of COVID-19, it can be concluded that even without accounting for the loss of unproduced gross national product resulting from fatalities, permanent and temporary disability, the economic loss from the novel coronavirus infection in 2020 in value terms exceeded 997.06 bln rubles, which surpasses the total loss from other infection diseases by 1.4 times," the document said.
The funds allocated directly to arrange and provide medical assistance to COVID-19 patients amounted to at least 189.4 bln rubles ($2.5 bln), while direct payments from the federal budget for efforts to tackle the infection (support of the population and enterprises) totaled at least 515.9 bln rubles ($7 bln). Direct spending on hospital care roughly stood at 183.06 bln rubles ($2.5 bln), while outlays on testing exceeded 108.6 bln rubles ($1.4 bln).
