Moscow: Amid the extremely contagious Omicron variant spreads across Russia, the country has reported a daily tally of new coronavirus infections that is tenfold higher than a month ago.
The state coronavirus task force recorded 189,071 new infections, which was about 2,800 more than the previous day and maintained a surge that began in mid-January, when daily new cases were around 17,000 per day.
Despite the substantial spike in infections, the task force noted that daily Covid-19 mortality are maintaining level or dropping, with 661 more deaths recorded on January 6 compared to 796 on January 6. The task force recorded 12.8 million infections and 335,414 deaths during the course of the epidemic, far and away the largest death toll in Europe.
Despite the rising number of infections, Russian President Vladimir Putin assured Russia's largest business association last week that no lockdowns or other restrictions are planned. In addition, the government has eliminated the seven-day self-isolation requirement for anyone who come into contact with Covid-19 patients.
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