Russia reports record daily COVID-19 deaths

Russia has confirmed 973 COVID-19-related fatalities over the past 24 hours, the highest daily count reported in the country since the start of the pandemic, bringing the national death toll to 218,345, the official monitoring and response center said Tuesday, reported Xinhua.

A total of 28,190 new infections were registered, taking the nationwide tally to 7,832,964. The number of recoveries increased by 20,706 to 6,894,285.

Meanwhile, Moscow reported 4,699 new cases, taking the city's total to 1,688,376.

The Russian capital has launched 20 free rapid coronavirus test spots and each facility can test about 200 people a day.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said last Friday that 47.8 million people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 42.4 million people had been fully vaccinated.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that vaccination rates in Russia were "unacceptably low," leading to such high mortality rates amid a rise in more aggressive virus variants.

He called on Russians to get vaccinated and urged national media to promote this message.