Russian Mayoral Candidate Considers New York's Fight Against Pandemic Ineffective

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) The very first Russian candidate for New York Mayor, Vitaly Filipchenko, in an interview with Sputnik criticized city and state authorities for their ineffective fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Filipchenko, who grew up in the city of Tomsk in Siberia, moved to the US a decade ago. He has met the requirement of being a US citizen for seven years and now must collect 3,750 signatures by May 25 to officially get on the ballot for the city's mayoral race.

"There were no prevention measures such as street cleaning or subway disinfection," Filipchenko said. "There was also incomplete information about the pandemic."

The unpreparedness of the authorities, an incorrect assessment of the pandemic has led to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, he continued.

The candidate also pointed to the recent scandal involving New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has been accused of deliberately underreporting the number of deaths in nursing homes.

Last month, a report by the state attorney general put the nursing home COVID-19 death toll at 13,500 deaths, up from the official 8,500 toll. Cuomo, a Democrat, has continued to reject the allegations.

"He [Cuomo] kept silent about this situation but in the end it came to light. People died because of that," Filipchenko said.

According to Filipchenko, the authorities of the city and the state of New York were completely ineffective in spending the funds allocated to fight the pandemic and could have helped people more during the crisis.

Filipchenko also criticized mayor for practically destroying all small business, such as restaurants in New York due to ineffective pandemic policies.

The US by far leads the world in both confirmed COVID-19 cases (28.4 million) and deaths (508,000).� New York City was a COVID-19 hot spot early on in the crisis and has to date recorded more than 602,000 cases and over 29,000 deaths.