Russia hits new record number of daily COVID-19 deaths

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Friday again registered a new record number of daily coronavirus fatalities as the virus claimed the lives of 1,254 people in one day, pushing the death toll to 261,589.

The country reported 37,156 new infections over the past day, bringing the overall count to 9.25 million, Russia's coronavirus emergency task force said in a daily report.

Meanwhile, the active cases decreased from 1.04 to 1.03 million, and recoveries went up to 7.95 million after a record number of patients -- 37,004 -- were successfully treated, the report said.

The coronavirus morbidity has been going down after the non-working period introduced in the country from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, but the situation remains tense and the daily figures are still high, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Monday.

Mishustin blamed the low level of vaccination in the high mortality rate, pointing out that most people in difficult conditions are those who have not been vaccinated.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 5.13 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with over 256.1 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.