#Russia sees record daily virus infections

Russia registered a record daily number of new coronavirus infections on Friday, surpassing its previous high from May.

Officials reported 12,126 new infections, edging above the previous high of 11,656 on May 11 and bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1,272,238—the fourth highest in the world.

Widespread restrictions were lifted after new cases began to drop in May, and officials have shown no sign of moving to reimpose such broad measures.

But the head of consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor described the situation as increasingly difficult and warned new measures could lie ahead.

“Either we observe (restrictions) or we will have to introduce new measures,” said Anna Popova.

Moscow—the city with the highest number of cases by far—reimposed some measures last month.

The capital’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin ordered over-65s to stay at home and told employers to keep at least a third of their staff working from home.

Russia has confirmed 22,257 deaths since the start of the pandemic, but critics have accused officials of underreporting deaths to hide the severity of the situation.

© 2020 AFP