Russia sees new all-time high of daily coronavirus cases

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia on Wednesday recorded another record number of daily COVID-19 deaths, with 1,239 fatalities over the past day, raising the tally to 250,454.

The daily infections have been slightly dropping after a week-long non-working period as 38,058 people tested positive for COVID-19 since Tuesday -- the lowest single-day growth since Oct. 27 -- Russia's coronavirus emergency task force said in a daily report.

But the active cases are at their maximum since the beginning of the pandemic in Russia, with over 1 million people under treatment and a total of 8.91 million cases so far.

Meanwhile, 34,565 people recovered from COVID-19 over the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 7.65 million.

The authorities blame the low level of vaccination for the high coronavirus mortality rate.

According to Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, the virus most severely affect unvaccinated people, noting that the majority of people in intensive care units are those who have not been vaccinated.

Currently, only 62 million people in Russia have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, he said.

Russia's Chief Sanitary officer Anna Popova added that the morbidity rate is growing in 61 regions, while in 18 more there are no significant changes and only six regions show a slow decrease in the number of patients.