RUSSIA HITS RECORD NUMBER OF DAILY COVID-19 DEATHS

Mon 04 October 2021:

On Sunday, Russia announced a daily death toll from COVID-19 that set a new high for the sixth time in a week.

The national coronavirus task group reported 890 deaths in the past day, up from 887 reported on Friday. The task force also reported that the number of new illnesses in the previous day was 25,769, the second-highest of the year.

In total, almost 210,000 individuals have died as a result of the pandemic in Russia, a country with a population of 146 million people.

Despite the country’s daily spike in deaths and new cases, Russian officials maintain they have no intentions to implement a curfew. Mask-wearing rules exist, however they are only rarely enforced.

During the summer, Moscow tried for a brief period to require proof of vaccination or a negative PCR test for indoor customers at restaurants and pubs, but the program was abandoned when business owners complained about lost revenue.

Despite the fact that Russia boasted of developing Sputnik V, the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, just 32.5 percent of Russians have received at least one vaccine shot and only 28% are fully vaccinated. Critics have primarily blamed the outbreak on a poor vaccine rollout and mixed warnings from officials regarding the outbreak.

Furthermore, coronavirus antibody testing are widely used in Russia, which some analysts believe adds to the low vaccination rates.

Western health experts say the antibody tests are unreliable either for diagnosing COVID-19 or assessing immunity to it. The antibodies that these tests look for can only serve as evidence of a past infection. Scientists say it’s still unclear what level of antibodies indicates that a person has protection from the virus and for how long.

Since mid-September, when scores of people in the Kremlin were found to be infected, President Vladimir Putin has observed times of self-isolation. After emerging from his most recent spell of isolation, Putin met with Turkey’s president last week.

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