Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit record highs for the second straight day Thursday, while new daily cases appeared to be taking a downward trend but still remained higher than during previous waves of the pandemic.
Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported that 1,251
people died of COVID-19 since the day before, the most since Russia had its
first virus outbreak in March 2020. The previous record of 1,247 deaths was
recorded Wednesday.
The task force also reported 37,374 new confirmed cases.
Until this week, Russian authorities had recorded higher daily case numbers
since late October.
Health experts have blamed the latest surge in infections
and deaths on low vaccination rates and lax public attitudes toward taking
precautions. Fewer than 40% of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been
fully vaccinated, even though the country approved a domestically developed
COVID-19 vaccine months before most of the world.
To boost immunization rates, the government said new
restrictions would take effect next year and limit access to many public
places, as well as domestic and international trains and flights, to those who
have been fully vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 or are medically
exempt from vaccination.
Officials have urged Russians to get vaccinated in the
meantime.
In total, the coronavirus task force has reported over 9.2
million confirmed infections and more than 260,000 COVID-19 deaths, by far the
highest death toll in Europe. Some experts believe the true figure is even
higher.
Reports by Russia’s statistical service, Rosstat, that tally
coronavirus-linked deaths retroactively reveal much higher mortality. They say
462,000 people with COVID-19 died between April 2020 and September of this
year.
Russian officials have said the task force only includes deaths for which COVID-19 was the main cause, and uses data from medical facilities. Rosstat uses wider criteria for counting virus-related deaths and takes its numbers from civil registry offices where registering a death is finalized.
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