(Bloomberg) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin will go into self-isolation after people around him fell sick with Covid-19, the Kremlin said Tuesday in a statement.
The leader canceled his plans to fly to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, this week to attend the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit and will instead hold online meetings, according to the statement. The summit is set to discuss the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control over the country as the U.S.-led coalition withdrew.
Putin himself said Monday he may have to quarantine because of rising cases among the people around him, according to a video published by Life.ru, as he hosted a group of Russian Paralympian champions in Kremlin.
“We need to figure out what is really happening with this Covid there,” Putin said. “I probably will have to quarantine myself soon. We have a lot of people who are sick.”
While coronavirus deaths in Russia reached all-time high last month, they are still hovering around record daily rates, and authorities fear an autumn rebound in infections, with less than a third of the population vaccinated.
©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
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