Moscow's mayor warns Putin that regional officials don't understand coronavirus risks and says low levels of testing could explain Russia's small number of confirmed cases

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, who also serves as the deputy head of Russia’s coronavirus task force, has asked Vladimir Putin to strengthen the measures imposed in regions across the country to slow the spread of coronavirus. 

At a meeting with the president on Tuesday, Sobyanin warned that “not all regions understand” the necessity of tough measures because of the low number of detected infections. Moscow’s mayor pointed out that the small number of confirmed cases could actually be due to a low level of testing. “The testing volume is very low and nobody knows the real picture,” Sobyanin explained. “We see quite a lot of people who are staying at home and just not getting tested — people who have returned from abroad. They're feeling fine, thank God. In reality, there are far more people who are infected.”

As of March 24, Russia had confirmed 495 cases of coronavirus, including 290 infections in Moscow.