Russia hits new all-time maximum of daily coronavirus death toll

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Thursday saw another all-time high in daily coronavirus fatalities as 1,251 people died over the past day, pushing the death toll to 260,335, the country's coronavirus emergency task force said in a daily report.

Over the same period, 37,374 people tested positive for COVID-19, taking the overall count to 9.21 million and active cases to 1.04 million while 36,414 people were successfully treated, bringing recoveries to 7.91 million, it said.

The coronavirus morbidity has been going down after the non-working period introduced in the country from Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, but the situation remains tense and the daily figures are still high, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Monday.

Mishustin blamed the low level of vaccination in the high mortality rate, pointing out that most people in difficult conditions are those who have not been vaccinated.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 5.12 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with over 255.1 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' Johns Hopkins University.