Overflowing morgues and missing medicines: Russia’s regions overrun by Covid second wave

Wife of doctor who died from coronavirus believes hospital managers hid positive diagnosis to keep the ward running. By Oliver Carroll in Moscow

Makeshift memorial to medical workers that have died from Covid, in St Petersburg (EPA)

Intensive care doctor Yury Kochetkov knew the odds were against him when he presented himself for a test in early October.

All the ICU nurses in the hospital in Siberian city of Barnaul were already self-isolating, forcing him and the other remaining doctors to work all hours. Kochetkov was also displaying the tell-tale signs. It would only be a matter of time before would be asked to go home, he assumed.

But the call never came.