CORRECTS - Russia: COVID-19 cases pass 105,000 after record high

CORRECTS DAY OF STATEMENT

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - A record high of new coronavirus cases has taken Russia’s overall count past 105,000 and the death toll has crossed 1,000, authorities announced on Thursday.

A total of 7,099 people tested positive for COVID-19 and 101 patients died over the past 24 hours, the emergency team said in a statement.

The total number of cases stands at 106,498 and fatalities have reached 1,073, it added.

The statement said 208,000 people remain under medical surveillance across Russia, while 11,619 patients have recovered so far.

Russia recently ramped up testing in the hopes of diagnosing patients at an early stage and has conducted more than 3.49 million tests to date.

Almost 3.2 million people in 185 countries and regions have been infected by the coronavirus since it emerged in China last December, with the US and Europe being the world’s hardest-hit areas.

A significant proportion of patients -- over 981,000 -- have recovered from COVID-19, but the disease has claimed close to 231,000 lives so far, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the US.