Coronavirus death toll in Russia top 5,000

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - The coronavirus death toll in Russia crossed the 5,000 mark on Tuesday, while the number of cases topped 420,000.

Over the last day, the virus killed 182 patients, raising the death toll to 5,037, the country's emergency task force said in a daily report.

The daily cases climbed 8,863, bringing Russia's tally to 423,741, while number of recoveries rose 11,108 to just short of 187,000, it added.

Last week, the Russian government started to lift restrictions inside the country, saying the situation with the virus had stabilized.

At the same time, Russia kept its borders closed, with international air and railway travel suspended.

Two top Russian officials are being treated for the coronavirus, while four others have recovered.

Since originating in China last December, the pandemic has claimed nearly 376,000 lives in 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil and Russia are currently the world’s worst-hit countries.

Some 6.27 million cases have been reported worldwide. As many as 2.7 million people have recovered so far, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.