On 16 March, Russia's Spiritual Administrations of Muslims (SAMs, or Muftiates) recommended introducing a number of restrictions on visiting mosques because of the threat of the spread of coronavirus, reported the Caucasian Knot.
The day later, the Muftiate of Dagestan urged the Imams of the republic's mosques to reduce the time for Friday prayers and to sanitize crowded places.
The head of Ingushetia, Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov stated during a sitting of the operative headquarters for the prevention of coronavirus, that the republic's authorities will organize a complex work to disinfect mosques before collective prayers.
On March 17, an instruction was posted on the Kabardino-Balkaria’s SAM Instagram account, which states that starting from 23 March the work of all the republic's teachers of Sunday Schools and Imams, working under the KBR's SAM and teaching children the Holy Koran and the basics of Islam, will be suspended.
In Chechnya, an unprecedented flow of buyers in grocery stores and wholesale points was reported. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov asked the residents of Chechnya not to be afraid of the spread of the coronavirus infection and stop buying food. He warned that people who were disseminating panic rumours in social networks would have to publicly apologize. On 13 March, seven Chechen residents were placed under quarantine with suspected coronavirus infection. The spring break in Chechen schools was extended until 25 April.
The prices for medical masks also had risen exponentially in the North Caucasus regions. A record price increase was recorded in Adygea, where masks went up more than 15 times, and Dagestan, where they began to cost more than six and a half times than normal.
The operational headquarters for preventing the spread of coronavirus infection, created under the government of the Russian Federation, reported the first case of coronavirus in the Krasnodar Territory on 12 March. Currently, the official tally of infected persons in the country is 114.
