Russia has recorded a rise of more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases for the third day in a row, as it heads into the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

President Vladimir Putin has said everything is being done to save lives, but conceded the situation was "dire."

Ambulances have had to queue for hours outside hospitals waiting for patients to be admitted. 

A survey conducted by the doctor research organization Medical Information Solutions at the start of April found that three quarters of Russian doctors said they did not have enough personal protective equipment. The group said that may have changed by May. 

At Lyubertsy Hospital just outside Moscow, so many medics were infected that staff called the domestic intelligence agency, the FSB, to investigate. 

Dr Aksinya Menshikova said "The problem was that we didn't have means of protection. In general, the hospital wasn't prepared to receive patients with suspected coronavirus."

"The logistics weren't considered in advance about how to keep patients away from each other, protect doctors from infection. There wasn't even basic PPE that could protect doctors at least from being infected by the sick patients."

As difficult as the situation around Moscow may be, other regions are likely to be worse off.  

Moscow has been the focus of Russia's fight against coronavirus, with about half of the country's confirmed infections. 

But the outbreak is quickly spreading across the rest of the country, and the fear is that other regions do not have the capital's resources.

Dr Tatyana Revva, from the Volgograd region, said she raised concerns about poor gear, but has since been threatened with prosecution. 

She said: "I feel like all my attempts to bring change won't go anywhere. I am very upset by all of this, I see what they're getting at – I'll be fired.”

The local health department involved says it does have enough stock. 

President Putin says Russia is making millions more masks, and thousands more ventilators, but that still may not be enough.

He said "We managed to slow down the spread of the epidemic. This is the result of our joint work, the responsibility of millions of the citizens of the country. The daily number of new cases of the disease has stabilized."

For many, the coming weeks will be long indeed.