Bird flu added to COVID-19 in Tatarstan
Farmers in Tukay District have to slaughter their poultry, Minnikhanov is concerned about pensioners, while Kazan and Almetyevsk were short-charged
The introduction of new restrictions due to the strained situation due to COVID-19 and new trouble in the form of a bird flu outbreak — these are two hot-button issues among those that were discussed at a traditional Saturday meeting with Rustam Minnikhanov in the House of Government on 20 November. Also, it became known that large-scale repairs in blocks of flats hadn’t been completed in 10 cities of the republic. A shortage of financing from local budgets is the culprit. Only 64% of money envisaged by the programme was received, Kazan and Almetyevsk are key debtors. Read more in Realnoe Vremya’s report.
“Transport is that zone where one can get infected faster”
Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov started the meeting with a topic that wasn’t on the agenda deciding to get the priorities right. He claimed that the tense situation in the republic due to COVID-19 required new restrictive measures. Since Monday 22 November, only those adults of the republic who have QR codes (about vaccination or recovery from the coronavirus in the last six months) or certificate of a medical exemption have been able to use public transport.
“Transport is that zone where one can get infected faster, of course, people have mixed feelings about these novelties, but we don’t have choice. The situation in those countries that took this road is already stabilising,” the Tatarstan president stressed.
Rustam Minnikhanov touched on pensioners who have the lowest vaccination rate, just 49%. Meanwhile, according to him, most beds in COVID-19 hospitals are occupied precisely by citizens older than 60 years. They account for 85% of deaths. To stimulate vaccination in this group of population, the citizens above 60 years who don’t have a QR code or medical exemption will have their social transport cards blocked.
“The elderly are in the high risk group because they seriously suffer from COVID-19. We are trying to protect them as much as possible,” Minnikhanov stressed.
According to the president, from 15,000 to 30,000 citizens are daily vaccinated in Tatarstan. 1,9 million people have already received at least one dose, 1,4 million have been fully vaccinated. 54,000 people have been revaccinated. The head of the republic noted that the growth pace of new infection cases was falling, but it was necessary to save the dynamics so that people could calmly celebrate New Year, which is around the corner, “so that they will be positive.”
Minnikhanov reminded the audience that it has been ordered to suspend the workers who haven’t received the first dose since 9 November according to a decree of the chief state sanitary doctor of Tatarstan, besides people who have a medical exemption or recovered from the disease in the last six months.
“Directors of enterprises and organisations must mandatorily comply with the decree. This is in your interests. Your employees must be healthy, shouldn’t pose a threat to their colleagues and their families. The work is running very smoothly in those workplaces where managers considered this issue responsibly. There is no other way. We will strictly keep an eye on this,” the Tatarstan president said.
Chief veterinarian instructed farmers to start slaughtering poultry
Besides coronavirus, another trouble has appeared in Tatarstan, which is the bird flu. In autumn, it was registered in neighbouring regions: in Saratov, Samara, Orenburg, Kirov Oblasts, Bashkortostan and Udmurtia. On 19 November, it “crossed the border.” As Director of the Main Veterinary Office of the Tatarstan Cabinet of Ministers and chief state veterinarian inspector of Tatarstan Almaz Khisamutdinov explained, an outbreak of very pathogenic bird flu were detected at a quail farm in Tukay District. The farm bred 42,000 adult quails and 10,000 quail chicks. All of them had to be destroyed. Another 48,000 eggs and 171 kg of meat in the farm’s warehouse were disposed of too.
The five-kilometre outbreak area includes 3 settlements of the district. Their residents keep over 3,500 different kinds of birds.
“Today we cannot permit the infection to keep spreading. Farm owners must start slaughtering poultry they have raised for their own needs. Those who breed the poultry on an industrial scale for sale must switch to a closed maintenance regime and comply with all our requirements and instructions of Russia’s agricultural safety watchdog,” Khisamutdinov gave farmers valuable instructions.
Also, he urged them to be careful about where the fodder is brought from and disinfect the amenities so that employees don’t bring the virus on their clothes and shoes. Rustam Minnikhanov reminded that farmers must meet all the requirements given by the veterinarian office. He also urged them to calculate the losses the farmers would have.
“It is better to act strictly on time. It is necessary to introduce very stringent control in all the enterprises that deal with poultry: over staff, fodder, following the rules. All these issues must be seriously overseen,” the Tatarstan president said.
Kazan and Almetyevsk considered debtors
At the Saturday meeting, they traditionally talked about the execution of republican major repair programmes. Tatarstan Minister of Construction, Architecture and Utilities Marat Ayzatullin reported that nowadays 15 in 27 programmes have been implemented, that’s to say, 1,030 in 3,488 facilities have been repaired. Another 12 programmes are still in work. It is necessary to complete 38 facilities and a number of blocks of flats in 10 municipalities for over 1,7 billion rubles.
Kindergarten No. 104 in Kazan, four hospital buildings in Nizhnekamsk, Chistopol, Bugulma and Leninogorsk, two children camps, four facilities that belong to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a series of sports venues are among the places where big repairs haven’t yet ended. Only 48 in 413 educational establishments have been repaired.
Ayzatullin delivered a report reading that last week contractors completed works in the last facilities in two programmes. So 881 facilities have been repaired for 1,4 billion rubles in six engineering infrastructure modernisation areas.
The minister said there was a delay in the repairs of houses because 15% of this programme is financed by municipal money, while there is a shortage of money. Nowadays 740 million rubles, or 64% of the amount envisaged by the programme, has been received from local budgets. The republic’s two richest cities — Kazan and Almetyevsk — unexpectedly turned out to be debtors.
Only 34% of settlements are in the registry
Tatarstan Minister of Land and Property Fanil Agliullin noted that today the United State Real Estate Registry contains information about only 34% of settlements (1,059 in 3,119), which are parts of 293 municipalities. To include them in the registry, it is necessary to elaborate general plans of 327 municipalities. If the pace stays, this will take more than 8 years, the speaker said.
He added that it is also necessary to create 565 projects on land use and development rules. 130 rules have been approved since 2018. But territorial zones only in 15 approved rules have been added to the cadastral registry.
Fanil Agliullin named the reasons for the delay. It is the absence of information about the borders of territorial zones in the materials of rules. Also, the executive committee (client) doesn’t send information about the borders of territorial zones to the registry or stops further actions after being denied cadastral registration.
The Ministry of Land and Property reported on the course of works designed to establish the borders of the Republic of Tatarstan. The total length of the republic’s border is about 3,500 kilometres. It is necessary to add information about eight parts of the border with neighbouring regions to the registry. The minister called 570 of them “problematic”, nowadays 90% of issues have been resolved, the work on 29 segments goes on.
Working projects on borders were approved at joint meetings of task forces regarding the borders with Orenburg Oblast and the Chuvash Republic, the Republic of Mari El, Samara Oblast and the Republic of Bashkortostan. An agreement with Orenburg Oblast signed with the Republic of Tatarstan has been sent to the region’s governor.
Works on the approval of projects of the border with Ulyanovsk Oblast are about to end. Joint events and three rounds of negotiations on the discussion of the border’s project were held. Nowadays the final round of talks is being prepared.
22 segments remain unapproved on the border with the Udmurt Republic. The materials on the border near Agryz city prepared by the administration of Agryz District, Tatarstan, and Malopurgino District, Udmurtia, were the foundation of the project.
The performer of works to establish the borders have not yet been chosen in Orenburg and Ulyanovsk Oblasts, the Republics of Mari El and Bashkortostan. Due to this, the works on the projects are done by the Spatial Data Fund of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Zelenodolsk District asks the republic for money
Governor of Zelenodolsk District Mikhail Afanasyev reported on socio-economic development and asked the republic to help to repair the road at the entrance to the city and organise water supply and discharge in the Raifa area, which doesn’t have centralised sewerage in general.
The road repair project is already ready and was inspected, only money is needed to start the works. While the Raifa area doesn’t have centralised sewerage in general, this is why Afanasyev asked the president for support with engineering sewerage for villages and settlements of this territory.
Also, the head of the district reminded the audience that the municipality was preparing to celebrate the 90th jubilee since it obtained the status of city. On this occasion, Afanasyev invited the president, thanked him for supporting the initiative of giving Zelenodolsk the status of Labour Merit City.
“Hopefully, on its jubilee, Zelenodolsk will get this honourable status,” Afanasyev expressed his hope.