Russia registers highest single-day COVID-19 deaths since Feb. 11

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia reported 546 deaths from the coronavirus over the past 24 hours, health authorities said on Tuesday, the highest single-day spike in fatalities since Feb. 11.

The nationwide death toll from COVID-19 reached 130,347, according to Russia’s coronavirus emergency task force

Some 16,715 new cases were also reported, the highest daily infections since March 4, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 5.35 million.

The total number of recoveries in the country reached 4.88 million, with 11,117 recoveries over the past day – also the highest since March 20.

Although Russia was the first country in the world to register a coronavirus vaccine – Sputnik V – it lags behind in the rate of vaccinated people, with only 10.38% of the population having gotten both vaccine doses.

Russia has a variety of vaccines, including Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, and CoviVac, while another is in a trial phase.

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced a shortage of CoviVac vaccine on Tuesday, with authorities suspending appointments for vaccination until the delivery of the next batch of the vaccine.

Last week, several Russian regions, including Moscow and Moscow Oblast, authorities ordered mandatory vaccination for employees of the service industry, introducing penalties for non-compliance with the requirement.

Some people have voiced their dissent to the mandatory vaccination.

Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova said she receives a lot of complaints that citizens who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 are facing discrimination.

Asked about discrimination, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "some degree of discrimination is inevitable," as unvaccinated people pose a threat to others.

However, he said the complaints should be thoroughly examined by the coronavirus emergency task force.

Since December 2019, the pandemic has claimed over 3.87 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with more than 178.8 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

The US, India, and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries.