Russia reports 40,759 new COVID-19 cases

Russia confirmed 40,759 COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 8,952,472, the official monitoring and response center said Thursday, reported Xinhua.

Meanwhile, the nationwide death toll grew by 1,237 to 251,691, and the number of recoveries increased by 33,156 to 7,687,317.

Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported 6,240 new cases over the past 24 hours, taking its total to 1,882,060.

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Thursday that slightly more than half of the elderly population have been vaccinated nationwide.

Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said Wednesday that the country's immunity rate currently stood at 48.4 percent.

She stressed that in order to raise the rate to 80 percent to achieve herd immunity, another 22 million people must be vaccinated and another nine million re-inoculated.