Russia marks new all-time daily coronavirus death toll

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Tuesday hit another all-time high daily COVID-19 death toll, with the virus claiming 973 lives over the past day, pushing the overall count to 218,345, the country's authorities said.

With 28,190 new infections registered since Monday, the country's active cases hit 720,334, the emergency task force pointed out in a daily report.

To date, over 7.83 million people have been exposed to the virus, it added.

Recoveries increased by 20,706 over the last 24 hours to reach 6.89 million, the report read.

The experts connect the growing number of coronavirus deaths with the low level of vaccination -- only 42.2 million people, or 29.11% got immunized against the virus in Russia, which is less than half of the value required to achieve a collective immunity.

Another factor, affecting the mortality rate, is the beginning of the cold season, which brings flu-like illnesses fraught with complications and increasing the probability of the fatal outcome.

Also, in cold months the number of patients is rising, commensurately escalating the mortality rate.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed nearly 4.85 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 238.3 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US' John Hopkins University.