Russia faces surge of virus cases in last month

Moscow

The national coronavirus task force said 663 patients died, down from the previous day's 697, which was a record high. The tally of 25,142 new cases was more than 2.5 times as high as daily new infections in early June. Moscow, St. Petersburg and the region surrounding Moscow accounted for about half the nationwide total cases. Although the Kremlin says authorities are not discussing a lockdown, Moscow has imposed restrictions including requiring restaurant and bar patrons to show a code certifying they have been vaccinated or received a negative PCR test. Throughout the pandemic, Russia has recorded 5.61 million infections and 137,925 deaths.