Moscow set a new single-day record of more than 8,000 coronavirus cases as national deaths and infections shattered previous records Thursday.
The latest record comes as Moscow prepares to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s without its traditional mass festivities due to the pandemic.
Of the 8,203 newly infected residents in the Russian capital, official data says that 1,772 have been hospitalized. Moscow’s Covid-19 task force said more patients have been discharged than admitted to hospitals over the past 24 hours.
The city’s task force said around two out of five newly infected Muscovites are aged 18-45, with almost one-third in the 46-65 age group.
Russia’s national Covid-19 task force on Thursday also confirmed new record-breaking numbers with 29,935 coronavirus cases and 635 deaths.
The total national caseload is nearing 3 million, the world’s fourth-highest count, and official death numbers stand at more than 53,000, the ninth-highest in the world.
Russia set its previous single-day high of 29,039 infections on Dec. 6 and hit its previous fatality record of 613 deaths on Dec. 11.
Infection rates have nearly tripled from 6.1 per 100,000 people in October to 18.2 per 100,000 in the first week of December, officials say. Media reports have suggested that Russia has slowed Covid-19 testing this month despite its surge in infections and mass rollout of the domestic Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine.
Since the start of the record-breaking second wave this fall, Covid-19 has strained the regions’ poorly funded healthcare systems, with severe shortages of hospital beds, staff and medicine reported outside Moscow.
Moscow Recommends Coronavirus Self-Isolation for Pregnant Women
Moscow health authorities have urged pregnant women to self-isolate indoors as the city saw a new uptick in coronavirus cases on Friday.
Mayor Sergei Sobyanin previously urged the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases to go into self-isolation as the city of 12.7 million confirmed 1,560 new Covid-19 cases for the first time in three months. Hospitalizations in the Russian capital have gone up by 30% in the past week, officials said.
Moscow’s health department said it has expanded its list of residents required to self-isolate to include pregnant women and women who have recently given birth, as well as those with immune system disorders, genitourinary diseases, musculoskeletal disorders and endocrine system disorders.
“Experience in the fight against coronavirus has shown that these categories are also in the risk group,” it said in a statement on its website. “When they contract a new coronavirus infection, they are more likely to have complications and a severe course of the disease.”
The mayor’s office reiterated that authorities will not enforce its recommendations with fines.
Russia’s number of daily new cases has risen from below 5,000 in mid-to-late August to more than 6,000 in the past seven days. On Friday, Russia’s coronavirus task force confirmed 7,212 new infections nationwide.
More than 1.13 million cases have been officially confirmed in Russia, the fourth-highest number of infections in the world.
Sobyanin on Friday also urged the Russian capital’s businesses to send as many employees as possible to work from home.
