Russian health care system strained as COVID-19 deaths, infections hit another daily record: report

Russian coronavirus deaths and infections hit another daily record on Friday — the second day in a row — as the country’s health care system faces mounting strain, The Associated Press reported.

Russia reported 999 deaths and 32,196 COVID-19 cases on Friday, according to the news outlet, beating the previous records of 986 deaths and 31,299 cases reported on Thursday. 

The country has reported 7.8 million coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic and more than 220,000 deaths, per data from the World Health Organization.

Three countries have reported larger numbers of coronavirus cases: the United States, Brazil and India. All three, in addition to Mexico, have reported higher death tolls. 

The U.S. has seen a total of 44.3 million cases and more than 700,000 deaths, a milestone that was passed at the beginning of this month. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that COVID-19 infections have started to trend downward nationwide in the U.S., though it remains unclear if the latest delta variant-driven wave will be the last one.

Russia, which has repeatedly reported record numbers of COVID-19 deaths in recent weeks, has a low vaccination rate, with only 31 percent of its population fully inoculated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

To combat the strain on health care systems, retired, vaccinated medical practitioners have been told that they could resume working again, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said, according to the AP.

The government has indicated that it will not be moving toward a nationwide lockdown, as was the case during the beginning of the pandemic. Officials say that Russia’s 85 regions will themselves determine what measures to take, though some health officials have warned against that.

“If we don’t take measures to restrict social communications resulting in growing infections, we will face rising contagion,” Murashko said on Thursday, according to the AP.