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Mass vaccination against coronavirus is underway in Russia. Doctors, teachers and social workers are the first to receive the Sputnik V vaccine. PHOTO: Reuters
Russia recorded a record number of people infected and killed with the coronavirus today, AFP reported. The country did not introduce a general quarantine despite the start of the second wave of COVID-19.
Russian authorities have reported 635 deaths and 29,935 new infections in the last 24 hours. As a result, more than 2.96 million people were infected and 53,096 died.
Moscow, the main outbreak of the epidemic, also set a new record for the number of infected in 24 hours: 8,203 people, BTA noted.
Russia, the fourth most affected country in the world, already sets new records every week. The situation is particularly worrying in the poorest regions, where there are often insufficient funds to combat the disease.
By the way, official data show a lower mortality than in Western Europe and the United States; Vladimir Putin has bragged about this result for months, reports AFP.
At his annual press conference on Thursday, he said that Russia was dealing with the pandemic better than the West.
However, the Russian authorities only take into account deaths with the main cause COVID-19, after an autopsy confirmed it.
The official statistical agency Rosstat recorded almost 50,000 more deaths in October 2020 than in October 2019. In the period from March to the end of October, the additional number of deaths amounted to almost 165,000 cases compared to last year, which shows that the death toll is much higher than the authorities admit.
The government is reluctant to introduce a new nationwide quarantine to protect the declining economy and is counting on mass vaccination with Sputnik V.
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