As the extremely infectious omicron variety spreads across Russia, the daily tally of new coronavirus infections jumped to more than 121,000 on Sunday, an eightfold rise from the beginning of the month.
Over the previous 24 hours, the state coronavirus task force recorded 121,288 new infections, an all-time high and 8,000 more than the day before. Since early January, when only roughly 15,000 new cases per day were recorded, the country’s infection statistics have skyrocketed.
According to the task force, 668 individuals died of COVID-19 on the previous day, bringing Russia’s overall death toll from the epidemic to 330,728, far and away the most in Europe.
Despite the rising number of infections, officials have refrained from imposing any severe limitations, claiming that the health system has been able to cope with the flood of patients.
Earlier this month, the Russian parliament postponed indefinitely imposing limitations on the unvaccinated, which would have been controversial with vaccine-skeptical Russians. And, without providing an explanation, health officials reduced the mandatory isolation period for anyone who came into contact with COVID-19 patients from 14 to seven days this week.
Although many Russians were advised to stay off work for a week last October due to an increase in reported illnesses and deaths, Russia has only experienced one countrywide lockdown, in 2020.
The number of virus-related fatalities in Russia between April 2020 and October 2021 was above 625,000, according to Russia’s national statistics office, which utilizes broader counting standards than the task force.
Despite boasting about being the first country in the world to approve and roll out a domestically manufactured coronavirus vaccine, only around half of Russia’s 146 million people have been properly immunized.
