COVID in the Kremlin: Putin spokesman Peskov is latest Russian official to be hospitalized

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov is the latest of several high-ranking Russian officials to fall ill with COVID-19, and has been hospitalized, Russian media reported Tuesday. 

“Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that he got COVID-19,” reads a translated statement in the Moscow-based publication. 

“Ill, being treated,” Peskov was quoted as saying in a translated report in another Moscow-based publication, Daily Storm.

Russia has 232,243 reported cases of coronavirus, second only to the U.S. 1.35 million, out of 4.2 million worldwide , according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center. 

Peskov is among numerous in Russia President Vladimir Putin’s top government circle who reportedly have become sick with the virus.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin isolated himself with coronavirus late last month, and later was hospitalized. Mishustin apparently is so ill that Putin appointed a temporary replacement on April 30. 

In May, two other Russian officials went into hospital with COVID-19. They are Minister of Construction Vladimir Yakushev and his deputy, Dmitry Volkov. Another official, Minister of Culture Olga Lyubimova, is sick but isolated at home and working remotely. 

Putin himself seems healthy, according to the White House.

“The President spoke to President Putin just recently, last week, and he seemed to be in good spirits and good health and we don't have any reason to suspect that it's otherwise," National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien told reporters today when asked about Peskov.

Peskov said he has not had personal contact with Putin in more than a month, according to Daily Storm.

In early April, journalists spotted Peskov wearing a so-called “virus blocker” badge meant to ward off COVID-19.

“Oh, I don’t know if he helps or not,” Peskov told a reporter from the Latvia-based Russian language magazine, Meduza. “I bought it at the pharmacy.”

In the interview, Peskov made light of the device.

“Honestly, I’m not sure that he is somehow helping,” he said. “I read that many experts say that this can be harmful.”

Peskov’s wife, Russian Olympic ice dancer Tatiana Navka, also is hospitalized with COVID-19. In an interview with Daily Storm, she said that her husband most likely brought the disease home from work.