Coronavirus fatalities hit new peak in Russia

MOSCOW

The daily coronavirus death toll in Russia hit a new peak of 737 on Tuesday, raising the nationwide tally to 139,316, authorities said.

The overall infections count swelled by 23,378 and crossed 5.65 million, with the number of active cases now at 417,504, the emergency task force said in a daily report.

Recoveries, meanwhile, went up by 18,411 to top 5.1 million, it added.

Moscow remains the worst-hit area, with officials having confirmed that the worsening situation is due to the spread of the Delta strain of the virus.

A total of 5,498 more cases and 114 deaths were reported in the capital, raising the overall count above 1.39 million, including 182,508 active cases and 23,115 fatalities.

The number of patients to have recovered in Moscow climbed by 6,019 and is now over 1.19 million, according to latest figures.

More measures have been introduced to stem the rise in infections, including mandatory isolation and PCR tests for people with flu-like symptoms.

Authorities are also boosting capacity for COVID-19 patients to prevent a potential crisis in the healthcare system.