The number of coronavirus fatalities hit a record for the fourth straight day in Russia, with confirmed cases continuing to surge as well, prompting the Kremlin to voice concern.
On October 1, the government's coronavirus task force reported 887 deaths for the previous 24 hours, Russia's highest daily number since the start of the pandemic. The previous record, from a day earlier, stood at 867.
The number of new confirmed cases for the past 24 hours reached 24,522 new confirmed cases -- the highest since late July, the task force said.
“The dynamic is bad,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on October 1. "It elicits concern."
However, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, who heads the task force, said the government did not plan to impose a new lockdown.
Russia, the world's fifth worst-hit country with more than 7 million people infected, has had only one nationwide lockdown, at the beginning of the pandemic in the spring of last year.
The country’s authorities have shunned imposing tough restrictions ever since, although the country has seen cases spike since last month as vaccinations stall.
Despite Russia rolling out the world's first COVID vaccine in August 2020, polls show Russians are skeptical of getting vaccinated, with a majority saying they do not plan to get inoculated.
Just over one-quarter of the population had been fully vaccinated as of September 28, according to the Gogov website, which tallies COVID data from the regions.
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