COVID-19 situation in Russia ‘tense’ as cases continue to rise

By Dmitri Chirciu

MOSCOW (AA) - The COVID-19 situation in Russia is "tense", Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Thursday, as the number of virus cases continues to surge in the country.

Speaking at an online meeting with local authorities, Mishustin said the country's regional administrations should take precautions against the virus, adding that the vaccination process should also be accelerated.

"The coronavirus situation in our country is tense. The number of cases is increasing. More than 20,000 cases are detected every day," he said.

Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko also confirmed that the vaccination process has slowed down in the country.

"Some 49 million Russian citizens have received their first vaccine doses and 40 million their both doses," he said.

Anna Popova, head of the Federal Service for the supervision of consumer rights protection and human welfare, said that COVID-19 cases have climbed in 56 regions of the country over the last three weeks.

She emphasized that 97% of the cases detected in September are of the Delta plus variant.

According to a statement by the Russian Center for Coronavirus Infection Control and Prevention, 867 people lost their lives in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day increase since the beginning of the pandemic, bringing the nationwide death toll to 207,255.

Russia also reported 23,888 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the total number to more than 7.51 million.

The country kicked off the mass vaccination on Jan. 18 at the instruction of President Vladimir Putin.

*Writing by Jeyhun Aliyev from Ankara