Moscow: Russia A record high number of daily coronavirus deaths were reported on Wednesday as the country grapples with a stubbornly high infection rate and cautiously rolled back pandemic restrictions in regions beyond Moscow.
The world’s fifth worst-hit country with more than 7.5 million infections, Russia has seen a climb in cases since August driven by infectious delta variants and a sluggish vaccination campaign.
A government tally recorded 929 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, Russia’s highest daily virus tally since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Several Russia-made jabs have been available for months, but officials have struggled to encourage its vaccine-skeptical population to get vaccinated.
Surveys show that more than half of Russians do not plan to take the shot.
As of Wednesday, only 30 percent of Russia’s 146 million population had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, tallying Covid-19 data from regions.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said earlier this week that unvaccinated Russians had a higher death rate.
Rising infections have come without any real pandemic restrictions to limit the spread, but many regions have re-introduced QR codes for access to public places.
Moscow – the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak – has so far held back on reimposing restrictions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the lockdown would be an “absolutely undesirable scenario for any region”.
He poured cold water on any nationwide measures, saying regions are “taking action individually”.
In the capital, officials say the highly contagious delta variant is now responsible for all cases.
Speaking at a government meeting on Tuesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said his city was “far from peak numbers” and rising infections are largely linked to high detection rates.
He said two-thirds of Moscow’s hospital beds for coronavirus patients are currently occupied.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin, 68, self-isolated for two weeks after dozens of coronavirus cases were detected in his inner circle.
Russian officials have been accused of downplaying the severity of the outbreak and refrained from introducing restrictive new measures, following the first stringent lockdown in 2020.
The new deaths bring the total death toll from the coronavirus in Russia to 212,625 – the highest toll in Europe.
However, the official figures only count virus deaths where the virus was identified as the primary cause of death after an autopsy.
Under the broader definition of coronavirus-linked deaths, the statistics agency Rosstat reported in August that Russia had seen more than 350,000 fatalities.
The world’s fifth worst-hit country with more than 7.5 million infections, Russia has seen a climb in cases since August driven by infectious delta variants and a sluggish vaccination campaign.
A government tally recorded 929 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, Russia’s highest daily virus tally since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Several Russia-made jabs have been available for months, but officials have struggled to encourage its vaccine-skeptical population to get vaccinated.
Surveys show that more than half of Russians do not plan to take the shot.
As of Wednesday, only 30 percent of Russia’s 146 million population had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, tallying Covid-19 data from regions.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said earlier this week that unvaccinated Russians had a higher death rate.
Rising infections have come without any real pandemic restrictions to limit the spread, but many regions have re-introduced QR codes for access to public places.
Moscow – the epicenter of Russia’s outbreak – has so far held back on reimposing restrictions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the lockdown would be an “absolutely undesirable scenario for any region”.
He poured cold water on any nationwide measures, saying regions are “taking action individually”.
In the capital, officials say the highly contagious delta variant is now responsible for all cases.
Speaking at a government meeting on Tuesday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said his city was “far from peak numbers” and rising infections are largely linked to high detection rates.
He said two-thirds of Moscow’s hospital beds for coronavirus patients are currently occupied.
In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin, 68, self-isolated for two weeks after dozens of coronavirus cases were detected in his inner circle.
Russian officials have been accused of downplaying the severity of the outbreak and refrained from introducing restrictive new measures, following the first stringent lockdown in 2020.
The new deaths bring the total death toll from the coronavirus in Russia to 212,625 – the highest toll in Europe.
However, the official figures only count virus deaths where the virus was identified as the primary cause of death after an autopsy.
Under the broader definition of coronavirus-linked deaths, the statistics agency Rosstat reported in August that Russia had seen more than 350,000 fatalities.
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