The new COVID-19 Delta variant is now causing havoc in in Russia. According to reports Russia registered a record number of daily COVID-19-related deaths on Friday amid a surge in cases across the world’s largest country that the authorities blame on the infectious Delta variant.
In an announcement the government’s coronavirus taskforce said 679 people had died in the last 24 hours, the highest figure confirmed in a single day since the pandemic began.
The nation also reported 23,218 new infections in the last 24 hours, including 6,893 in Moscow.
The Russian capital, Moscow the epicentre of the outbreak throughout the pandemic, is racing to repurpose hospitals to treat an influx of patients, Anastasiya Rakova, the city’s deputy mayor, said.
“Now, with this explosive growth in infections, this (hospital) capacity is no longer enough and we will additionally add other hospitals again to combat the virus, as fast as possible, I hope,” Russian news agencies quoted Rakova as saying.
“(But) we’ll do everything possible not to declare a lockdown,” she said.
