Coronavirus deaths in Russia surpass 900 a day for 1st time

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MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's daily coronavirus death toll surpassed 900 on Wednesday for the first time in the pandemic, a record that comes amid the country's low vaccination rate and the government's reluctance to impose tough restrictions to control new cases.

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This article was published 06/10/2021 (1824 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s daily coronavirus death toll surpassed 900 on Wednesday for the first time in the pandemic, a record that comes amid the country’s low vaccination rate and the government’s reluctance to impose tough restrictions to control new cases.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 929 new deaths on Wednesday, the fourth time this month that daily COVID-19 deaths have reached record highs. The previous record, of 895 deaths, was registered Tuesday. Russia already has Europe’s highest death toll in the pandemic at over 212,000 people, but some official data suggests that is an undercount.

The task force also reported 25,133 new confirmed cases Wednesday.

FILE - In this Monday, July 12, 2021 filer, a medical worker wearing protective gear escorts a man, suspected of having coronavirus, at a hospital in Kommunarka, outside Moscow, Russia. Russia has reported a record daily death toll from COVID-19. It's the fifth time in a week that deaths have hit a new high in the country. The national coronavirus task force said Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021 that 890 deaths were recorded over the past day. That exceeds the 887 reported on Friday. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
FILE - In this Monday, July 12, 2021 filer, a medical worker wearing protective gear escorts a man, suspected of having coronavirus, at a hospital in Kommunarka, outside Moscow, Russia. Russia has reported a record daily death toll from COVID-19. It's the fifth time in a week that deaths have hit a new high in the country. The national coronavirus task force said Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021 that 890 deaths were recorded over the past day. That exceeds the 887 reported on Friday. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)

The rise in infections and deaths began in late September. The Kremlin has blamed it on too few Russians getting vaccinated. As of Tuesday, almost 33% of Russia’s 146 million people had received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, and 29% were fully vaccinated.

Despite the surge, government officials rejected the idea of imposing a lockdown and said regional authorities would take steps to stem the spread of the virus.

A number of Russian regions have limited attendance at large public events and restricted access to theaters, restaurants and other places to people who have been vaccinated, recently recovered from COVID-19 or tested negative in the previous 72 hours.

In some regions, Russia’s vast yet severely underfunded health care system has started to show signs of being overwhelmed by the outbreak.

Russian media have reported long lines of ambulances once again forming in front of hospitals in St. Petersburg. One desperate ambulance crew in the city of Vladimir, 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Moscow, reportedly drove a COVID-19 patient to a local government building after failing to find a hospital bed for her.

On Tuesday, the presidential envoy in the Ural Mountains district — a part of central Russia that encompasses six regions — said 95% of the hospital beds for COVID-19 patients there have been filled.

“The situation is very dire,” Vladimir Yakushev was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

FILE - In this Saturday, July 24, 2021 file photo, a demonstrator holds a poster reading
FILE - In this Saturday, July 24, 2021 file photo, a demonstrator holds a poster reading "No political repressions" during an anti-vaccination protest in the center of in Moscow, Russia. Russia’s daily coronavirus death toll has surpassed 900 for the first time in the pandemic. The record reported Wednesday, Oct. 6 comes amid a low vaccination rate and the government’s reluctance to impose tough restrictions to control new cases. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Asked by reporters if the Kremlin will offer support to regions if they impose local lockdowns to tackle the surge of infections, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged those authorities to think twice. He said regional authorities have the power to decide which measures to introduce but “declaring some kind of lockdown is an absolutely undesirable scenario for any region.”

Overall, Russia’s coronavirus task force has reported over 7.6 million confirmed cases and more than 212,000 deaths. However, reports by Russia’s state statistical service Rosstat that tally coronavirus-linked deaths retroactively reveal much higher mortality numbers.

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Follow all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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