Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
RUSSIA REPORTED A record high number of daily coronavirus deaths today as the country struggles with stubbornly high infection rates and regions beyond Moscow cautiously bring back pandemic restrictions.
The world’s fifth worst-hit country with more than 7.5 million infections, Russia has seen cases climb since August driven by the contagious Delta variant and a sluggish vaccination drive.
A government tally recorded 929 Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, Russia’s highest daily virus death toll since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Several Russia-made jabs have been available for months, but authorities have struggled to encourage its vaccine-sceptic population to get inoculated.
Polls show that more than half of Russians do not plan to get a shot.
As of today, just under 30 percent of Russia’s 146 million population had been fully vaccinated, according to the Gogov website, which tallies Covid-19 data from the regions.
Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said earlier this week that death rates were high among unvaccinated Russians.
The surging infections have come without any real pandemic restrictions to limit the spread, but several regions have re-introduced QR codes for access to public places.
Moscow – the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak – has so far held back on reintroducing restrictions.
Kremlin spokesman Dmity Peskov said today lockdowns would be “an absolutely undesirable scenario for any region”.
He also poured cold water on any nationwide measures saying regions were “taking action individually”.
In the capital, authorities say that the highly contagious Delta variant now accounts for all of the cases.
Speaking at a government meeting yesterday Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said his city was “far from peak numbers” and the growing infections are largely linked to high detection rates.
Two thirds of Moscow’s hospital beds for coronavirus patients are currently occupied, he said.
In September, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, 68, self-isolated for two weeks after dozens of coronavirus cases were detected in his inner circle.
Russian authorities have been accused of downplaying the severity of the outbreak and, after a tight first lockdown in 2020, have refrained from introducing restrictive new measures.
The new deaths bring Russia’s total fatalities from coronavirus to 212,625 – the highest toll in Europe.
However, the official figures only count virus fatalities where the virus was identified as the primary cause of death after an autopsy.
Under a broader definition for deaths linked to the coronavirus, statistics agency Rosstat reported in August that Russia had seen more than 350,000 fatalities.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Vaccine scepticism. Darwinism at its finest.
@Joe Travers: Don’t blame the Russian people for not believing anything their government tell them
@James Godson: Nobody, but nobody believes ANYTHING that the Russian government tells them!!
Deaths per million in Russia is approximately 1400, which puts them marginally worse than Ireland but better than many other European countries. This despite a population that completely ignores lockdown restrictions and only ~30% vaccination rate. The Russian people are moving on with their lives now, for them COVID is a distant memory. Can’t blame them.
@Kevin Munroe: Russia (along with China) has also been aggressively stockpiling gold reserves in the last number of years and has an incredibly low debt/GDP ratio. They will be poised to become a dominant economic power now that we are rapidly approaching another “Bretton Woods” financial reset.
@Kevin Munroe: And you think the Russian government are telling the truth about how deaths they had,ah bless you.
@Daniel Roche: no more than our own lot are
@Kevin Munroe: LMAO if you believe Russia’s figures.
@Kevin Munroe: Our average deaths per million was 597, at its highest for 1 month it was 1022, which are both far removed from Russia’s official (110% true, I swear!) figure of circa 1400. Not sure what kind of a BS-peddling shill you are, but the “for them Covid is a distant memory ” gave me a right good old chuckle!
@Stephen Rogan: I’m not sure what you mean when you say ” at its highest for 1 month it was 1022″. Deaths per million is a cumulative statistic, it can only grow larger as the pandemic progresses. So how did it magically come down from 1022?
I recently returned from a holiday in Bulgaria. Pretty much no masks or social distancing. If I wasn’t watching the news I wouldn’t have even known that there was a pandemic. So I’m not sure why you find that funny. It’s the same across all of Eastern Europe and many Republican states in the US. People have moved on. You’re much more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases etc.
@Kevin Munroe: just like the Chinese whatever numbers they give will likely be massively understated.
@Kevin Munroe: Bulgaria had 282 deaths in the past two days. If you were a health worker, you’d have known there was a pandemic.
Eastern Europe – Romania had 15,000+ cases yesterday and 252 deaths. They have less than double our population. The difference? A tiny fraction of their population is vaccinated.
The people may have moved on but the pandemic hasn’t and is going to decimate their health system like it’s doing on Romania right now.
@Seán Ó Briain: Romania and Bulgaria are the two poorest members of the EU. The people have suffered from decades of government corruption since the fall of communism. The healthcare system is inadequate. The people are heavy smokers and drinkers. They are amongst the unhealthiest people in Europe.
But you’re right. The vaccines are working. At least for now. We will see how much immunity continues to wane when compared with natural immunity from infection. We will also see whether or not antibody dependent enhancement becomes an issue for the vaccinated this Winter. ADE was a big concern during previous attempts to make coronavirus vaccines for SARS and MERS. It’s the vaccinologist’s worst nightmare.
Nearly a thousand people gone in a day. RIP.
have your say