LVOVSKY, November 9 (RIA Novosti) - The number of confirmed swine flu cases in Russia has hit 4,560, Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said on Monday.
Speaking at a hospital in a town near Moscow, where she was to oversee the start of a national vaccination campaign, Golikova said the figure was up from 3,122 last week.
The country's sanitary and consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said on Friday that the swine flu death toll has risen to 19. The Moscow Region and regions in Siberia, the Far East and northwest have been hit the hardest by the H1N1 virus.
Mass swine flu vaccinations began in five Russian regions on Monday. Medical staff, employees at electric power and water treatment plants and other facilities will be inoculated first.
Four vaccines against the virus have been tested and registered in Russia. The government has allocated 4 billion rubles ($140 million) to buy the initial 43 million doses of vaccines. Russia plans to have 35.5 million doses before the end of the year.
Golikova warned last week against panic over the virus, which has caused a shortage of medical masks and antiviral medicines in clinics and retail drug stores, and pledged to step up control of drug stores' supplies and prices.
Shop assistants and pedestrians wearing medical face-masks have become a common sight in Moscow and other Russian cities. Fall holidays have been prolonged in many schools in the capital and other big cities.
The World Health Organization said on Saturday about 6,100 people have died from swine flu worldwide, with the total number of officially confirmed cases exceeding 482,000 in 199 countries.
