Russia’s COVID death toll was on record on the fifth day Coronavirus pandemic News

Russia reported 697 deaths associated with COVID on Saturday, which were confirmed in a single day since the pandemic began.

The death of Coronavirus in Russia reached a record high on Saturday for the fifth day in a row, with authorities reporting 697 deaths and the country experiencing a rapid rise in infections.

The previous record on Friday was 679.

The Russian state coronavirus team reported 24,439 new cases of coronaviruses on Saturday, the highest daily count since January and 1,200 more than the previous day. Moscow, its outlying regions and St. Petersburg accounted for nearly half of new cases on Saturday.

Officials blame the flood on the infectious Delta variant and the lukewarm demand for vaccines.

The Kremlin stressed on Friday that the authorities are not discussing another blockade. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the situation with coronavirus continues to be “tense” in several regions, but said “no one wants any closure.”

Moscow, the region most affected by the entire Russian pandemic, reported 7,446 cases on Saturday, and St. Petersburg (Friday night was the Euro 2020 quarter-final between Spain and Switzerland on Friday night) reported 1,733 cases and 110 deaths. The photos of the city’s windmills showed a lot of people without necessarily covering their mouths and noses.

Russia had hoped the vaccination campaign would reduce a new wave, but it has met with widespread skepticism and slow expansion, hitting just 16 percent of the 146 million population.

Terrified by the new rise in cases, officials have put in place numerous measures to force or encourage people to get vaccinated.

In Moscow, which has not had a strict blockade since last summer, officials have banned people from going to cafes, bars and restaurants unless they prove vaccinated, immune or tested negative.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said more than 2.7 million people have now received at least one dose of vaccine. He said about 60-70,000 people were being vaccinated every day and expected the number of people who had the first dose to reach 3 million next week.

At a site in the capital, 21-year-old Svetlana Stepereva told AFP news agency that the COVID-19 vaccine had been queuing for about two hours.

“I want to take a jab and feel safe,” he said.