MOSCOW (TASS) — Requirements for wearing face masks on public transport and a ban on holding mass events could remain in place in Moscow after most restrictions are lifted in spring, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in an interview with a TASS project on occasion of the pandemic anniversary.

While Russia began vaccinating its population now six months ago, the prospects for the elimination of COVID-19 are still uncertain. Indeed, the country’s sanitary situation does not seem to be much better than it was before. For this reason, and despite the authorities’ triumphant announcements about the Sputnik V vaccine, precautions are still being taken.

“We cancelled the majority of earlier introduced restrictions in January-February. Most likely, the remaining restrictions could be lifted this spring. Probably, we will have to keep some precaution measures, for example, face masks in metro or limiting mass events”, Sobyanin said.

The city authorities’ decisions on cancelling the current restrictions depend on the pace of vaccination and developing a herd immunity, he noted.