Russia hits new COVID-19 record, 10 times more than a month ago

Russia is reporting a record daily count of new coronavirus infections, a tenfold spike from a month ago as the highly contagious Omicron variant spreads through the country.

The figure of 189,071 new infections released by the state COVID-19 task force on Sunday was about 2,800 cases more than the previous day and continued a surge that began in mid-January, when daily new cases were around 17,000.

Although the number of infections has increased dramatically in recent weeks, the task force reported that daily deaths from COVID-19 are holding steady or marginally declining; 661 more deaths were recorded Sunday, compared with 796 on January 6.

The task force has reported 12.8 million infections so far and 335,414 deaths, the highest death toll by far in Europe.

Despite the soaring infections, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Russia's top business association earlier that authorities are not planning any lockdowns or other additional restrictions. Moreover, the government lifted the seven-day self-isolation restrictions for those who come into contact with COVID-19 patients.

Russia has had only one lockdown for six weeks in 2020, and in October 2021, many people were ordered to stay off work for about a week. But besides that, life in most of the country remained largely normal.

(Source(s): AP)