Australians are looking for light at the end of the coronavirus tunnel.

In Russia, there’s not light. But there is Vladimir Putin.

The Russian government built special tunnels to protect the president from the coronavirus at home and at work, Mr Putin’s spokesman says.

Reports about tunnels where anyone passing through is sprayed with germ-killing antiseptics appeared in Russian media on Tuesday night.

Russia has recorded the third-highest number of coronavirus infections in the world. https://t.co/zlWBcDZrtl

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) June 18, 2020

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that one tunnel was installed at the president’s home outside Moscow and two at the Kremlin.

“When it comes to the head of the state, additional precautionary measures are justified,” Mr Peskov said, adding that the tunnels were put in when Russia’s coronavirus “was in full swing”.

Information about the tunnel at Mr Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogaryovo first appeared on the official website of the Penza region, a province about 550 kilometres south-east of Moscow where the equipment was manufactured.

Russian health officials reported 7843 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday, the lowest daily number since late April.

The country has a total of 553,301 confirmed cases, the third-most in the world.