Coronavirus death toll in Russia tops 140,000

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia's coronavirus death toll exceeded the 140,000 mark on Wednesday with 725 more fatalities pushing the tally to 141,041.

Over the last 24 hours, the number of single-day infections rose by 23,962, taking the caseload to 5.68 million and active cases to 420,674, the country's coronavirus emergency task force said in a daily report.

Recoveries went up by 20,067 since Tuesday to reach 5.12 million, it noted.

Moscow continues accounting for almost 50% of all active cases -- 181,537 patients continue their treatment in the Russian capital.

In the past day, 5,621 new infections, 104 deaths, and 6,488 recoveries were registered in Moscow.

More measures were introduced to stem the rise, including mandatory isolation and PCR tests for people suffering from flu-like symptoms to break the chain of infection.

Officials are preparing reserve capabilities for COVID-19 patients to prevent any crisis in the healthcare system, but a lockdown is seen as the last resort and will be introduced only if other efforts do not work.