Russia sees record daily COVID cases for 9th day in a row

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) – Russia reported over 88,000 coronavirus cases on Thursday, hitting the highest single-day jump for the ninth day in a row.

Daily coronavirus infections have begun to surge with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant, infecting thousands of people across the country.

In the last 24 hours, 88,816 new cases have been detected, raising the total number of cases to over 11.4 million, according to the daily report of the Russian emergency task force.

During the same time period, 665 people died, bringing the nationwide death toll to 328,770, while 29,754 people were treated, taking the total number of recoveries to 10.12 million.

The spread of the omicron variant, which causes a milder course of illness but is more contagious than other variants, is cited by the health authorities for the increase in the number of new cases.

Many schools and public offices are closing or switching to remote modes of functioning, while hospitals are preparing additional beds to cope with the situation if hospitalizations rise.

As of Thursday, the omicron variant has been detected in 74 of 85 Russian regions, although the dominant variant is delta, which accounts for over 50% of all cases.

Since Dec. 2019, the pandemic has claimed more than 5.62 million lives in 192 countries and regions, with over 362.8 million cases reported worldwide, according to the US’ John Hopkins University.