Russia hits record number of daily coronavirus deaths for 2nd day in row

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Coronavirus-related deaths in Russia hit a record for the second consecutive day, with 929 fatalities over the past day, pushing the death toll to 212,625, the authorities said on Wednesday.

The number of new infections remained high as well -- 25,133 people tested positive for COVID-19 since Tuesday -- taking the country's caseload to 7.6 million, Russia's coronavirus emergency task force said in a daily report.

Meanwhile, 19,841 people recovered from the virus during the last 24 hours, taking total recoveries to 6.7 million, the report read.

The situation with the coronavirus pandemic in Russia has been worsening on the first approach of cold weather, the morbidity is increasing in most of the Russian regions, and the government expects the morbidity will climb to 30,000 daily cases soon, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said at a government meeting on Tuesday.

She also added that 42.2 million people have completed vaccination against the coronavirus in Russia.

In a separate statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the pace of vaccination in Russia leaves much to be desired, blaming "an insufficiently active campaign to explain the lack of alternatives to vaccination" for the people's unwillingness to get a jab.

For his part, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko stressed the efficiency of vaccination, saying only 2% of vaccinated people get infected with COVID-19. He also warned that the upcoming flu season in Russia will be difficult.

The Russian experts said the pandemic situation has been improving across the world but the epidemiological situation in Russia today is "not the most favorable."

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed around 4.8 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 235 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' John Hopkins University.