Coronavirus: Russia reports record daily high of COVID-19 deaths

Russia reported a record high of 439 new deaths linked to the novel coronavirus on Thursday and authorities in Moscow said they could consider imposing additional restrictions if the situation worsened.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said he did not expect the surge in cases in the capital, which reported nearly 6,000 new infections on Thursday, to subside any time soon. He said about 12,000 coronavirus patients were currently hospitalized.

The sprawling city of nearly 13 million people has already ordered bars, restaurants and nightclubs to close at 11 p.m. and moved university and college students to online learning.

Medical specialists wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) take care of a patient at a temporary hospital set up, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Moscow, Russia. (Reuters)
Medical specialists wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) take care of a patient at a temporary hospital set up, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Moscow, Russia. (Reuters)

“I hope that more restrictions will not be needed, but that will depend on the situation,” Sobyanin said in an interview with state television.

Nationwide, Russian authorities reported 21,608 new infections over the last 24 hours.

Wary of crippling the economy and destorying jobs, they have said they will not reimpose a full lockdown like that seen earlier this year, stressing the importance of hygiene, social distancing and targeted measures in certain regions instead.With 1,858,568 infections since the start of the pandemic, Russia has the world’s fifth largest number of cases after the US, India, Brazil and France.

Russia has reported 32,032 deaths in all from COVID-19.