Russia: COVID-19 cases, deaths keep seeing new records

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – Russia on Thursday registered the highest numbers of coronavirus cases and deaths since the start of pandemic.

Over the past day, 25,487 more people contracted the virus, bringing the overall count to over 2.18 million, the country's emergency task force said in a daily report.

The country reported 524 more fatalities, up from 507 on Wednesday, taking the country’s death toll 38,062.

As many as 25,073 new recoveries pushed the total number of recoveries to 1.68 million.

Meanwhile, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced to extend the restrictive measures in the capital until Jan.15, 2021.

The restrictions include self-isolation regime for people over 65 years and citizens suffering from chronic diseases, at least 30% of employees will continue to work from home, and city leisure facilities for children will be closed.

"The health System is still working with a very heavy load. Experts believe that in these conditions there is no need to introduce additional restrictions, but the cancellation of existing measures will be a premature and reckless decision," Sobyanin said.

Russia's overall case tally is the fifth highest in the world, behind the US, India, Brazil, and France.