Oleksii Liskonih/iStockBy PATRICK REEVELL, ABC NEWS

(MOSCOW) -- Russia now has the second highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, overtaking Spain. Russia’s health ministry said the country has 232,243 cases following a week where it had been registering over 10,000 new cases a day.

President Vladimir Putin’s longtime spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday said he had tested positive for the virus and was being treated in a hospital with his wife. It comes a week after Russia’s prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, was also hospitalized with the virus.

Trying to allay concerns about Putin’s health, Peskov told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that he had not met with the president in person for a month.

Russia formally began the first phase of easing its nationwide lockdown on Tuesday. A day earlier, Putin said some regions could begin lifting restrictions on nonessential businesses.

That directive means Russia is seeing a patchwork of different levels of restrictions across its vast territory.

Health workers badly hit as Russia becomes coronavirus hotspot
In Moscow, which has recorded more than half of total cases, authorities have already extended the lockdown until May 31, although construction sites and factories can now return to work. It is also now mandatory for people to wear masks and gloves in public spaces.

In several regions across Russia, people are now permitted to walk outside. In Siberia and the far east, some malls and shops are reopening, and in a handful of places, including the European enclave Kaliningrad and Kamchatka on the Pacific Coast, hairdressers can now work, although with restrictions.

People over 65 must remain in isolation regardless, Putin said, and all mass events remain canceled.

Because of Russia’s massive scale and often sparsely populated regions, the country is experiencing the epidemic unevenly, meaning it may make sense for some places to reopen earlier.

Despite the big daily numbers, Russian authorities have said there are signs the epidemic is stabilizing and the growth rate has slowed. The health minister said the number of new cases has been stable since May 3.

Russia’s health system remains under intense strain from the virus and health workers have been hit badly. Almost 70,000 people are currently hospitalized in Russia, according to Russia’s chief medical adviser, Anna Popova. In Moscow, hospitals treating coronavirus are still packed with patients, according to medics there.

In St. Petersburg, a fire on a coronavirus ward killed five patients on Monday, reportedly after a faulty ventilator caught fire.

Russia’s official death toll -- 2,116 -- has been puzzlingly low and is far less than countries with similar numbers of cases.

The Financial Times said the real global death toll from coronavirus may be 60% higher than reported in official counts.

New data published by Moscow’s city government on Sunday also suggested Russian authorities may be substantially undercounting deaths.

Experts and doctors in Russian hospitals have previously said they believe Russia’s official death toll is artificially low, noting that many coronavirus-linked deaths are being recorded under other causes.

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