Russia records 14,000 coronavirus cases in one day for the first time - News Today

Russian authorities have reported a record 14,000 new coronavirus cases, the latest daily spike in infections, as the country struggles to contain a second wave of the virus that has already overwhelmed hospitals. Russia, which has the world's fourth-largest confirmed coronavirus caseload of more than 1.3 million, has been reporting over 10,000 new cases for 11 straight days.The 14,231 new infections today was the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic. Health officials have claimed that 90 per cent of Russia's 176,000 hospital beds for Covid-19 patients are already occupied and some facilities across the country have stopped admitting patients with other illnesses. Share this article Share A total of 239 people died from Covid-19 in the same 24-hour period, a slight decrease from Tuesday's record of 244 fatalities. Russia's official death toll stands at 23,205 but federal statistics agencies believe the number could be twice as high. Despite the rapid resurgence of the outbreak, Russian authorities have dismissed suggestions of a second national lockdown. Most of the nationwide virus restrictions in the country were lifted during the summer. However, individual regions have instituted various measures to try to slow the virus.In Moscow, which has been reporting over 4,000 new cases every day since Saturday, officials recommended that the elderly self-isolate at home and ordered employers to have 30 per cent of their staff work from home. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin also extended school holidays by one week. For the past two weeks students have been on a holiday designed to prevent them from contracting the virus and taking it home.Sobyanin said older students would now be studying online at home because they accounted for two-thirds of children infected with the virus.'The decisions that we have made today are not easy but are simply necessary taking into account both the epidemiological situation and the need for schoolchildren to receive a quality education,' he wrote on his website. Pupils in 1st to 5th grades will continue attending schools as usual. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said the coronavirus situation in the country remained extremely strained and that many people were not following all safety guidelines.Since the start of the pandemic, Russia has recorded 1,340,409 infections, the fourth largest number of cases in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.