28.03.2024

Russia’s Daily Coronavirus Cases Cross 18K in New Record

Russia confirmed a record daily increase in coronavirus infections for the second consecutive day Friday, reporting more than 18,000 new cases for the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 18,283 new coronavirus cases pushes the overall number of Covid-19 cases in Russia to 1,599,976, the world’s fourth-highest number. The new milestone breaks Russia’s previous highest number of infections recorded 24 hours earlier by 566.

The national coronavirus information center said that over one-fifth (22.3%) of the newly infected Russians were asymptomatic.

Thursday’s number of symptomatic patients (13,026) was more than double the number of symptomatic patients (6,418) recorded at the peak of the outbreak in spring, the Open Media news website reported Thursday.

Russia’s coronavirus information center added that 355 people died from Covid-19 Friday, a decrease from the record 366 deaths confirmed Thursday.

Russia’s overall Covid-19 death toll based on aggregated daily figures stands at 27,656.

The latest record comes amid reports of widespread hospital bed, staff and drug shortages as the second wave of the pandemic hits Russian regions outside Moscow.

Authorities have introduced targeted prevention measures, including a national mask mandate and a recommendation to close bars and nightclubs after 11 p.m., but have avoided returning to wide-reaching lockdowns to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Russia’s Excess Death Spike a ‘Harsh Reality’ of Coronavirus, Kremlin Says

Russia’s surge in deaths last year is the “harsh reality” of the global coronavirus pandemic, the Kremlin said Wednesday after official data showed a much higher Covid-19 death toll than initially reported.

The state statistics service on Monday attributed 162,429 of deaths in 2020 to the coronavirus, three times more than the 57,555 deaths first reported by the national Covid-19 task force. That would bring Russia from eighth to fourth place among countries with the highest Covid-19 death tolls, undermining President Vladimir Putin’s boasts that Russia has seen lower fatality rates than other countries.

“Unfortunately, the excess mortality in 2020 appeared in nearly every country of the world and it’s at levels we wouldn’t like to see,” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“It’s a harsh reality we, all countries of the world, face in the era of the pandemic,” Interfax quoted Peskov as saying at a daily press briefing.

He acknowledged regional deficiencies in data-gathering but defended Russia’s healthcare system as “very effective in proving its high-mobilization potential” during the pandemic.

“We responded adequately to the threat of coronavirus and continue to respond adequately. As for the incoming data from the regions: there could be peculiarities somewhere,” Peskov said.

Rosstat, the federal statistics service, reported 323,000 excess deaths in 2020, the highest annual fatality count for at least 16 years.

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