Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has asked Russia’s top companies operating in the capital to again have some employees work from home after new daily cases of COVID-19 reached a three-month high.
Sobyanin sent the letter to firms including Sberbank, the nation’s largest lender, Yandex, its largest IT company by value, and Rostex, the state-owned defense holding.
The letter follows an address by the mayor earlier this month on state TV calling on Moscow companies to shift more employees to distance working to stem the spread of the disease in the capital.
Moscow is Russia's -- and Europe's -- largest city with an estimated 13 million residents.
The number of daily new infections from the coronavirus in Moscow rose on September 24 to 1,055, the highest since June, RBK reported.
It represents a nearly 60 percent increase since the middle of September. Hospitalizations in the capital have also increased.
Several nations across Europe are experiencing an increase in cases as people return to school and economies open up.
Russia has reported 1.1 million cases of the coronavirus, the fourth-highest total in the world after the United States, India, and Brazil. The number of fatalities is just under 20,000, the 12th highest in the world.
