With vaccination stalled, Russia has record daily coronavirus deaths

Russia on Tuesday recorded its highest number of daily deaths by the coronavirus due to the peak of infections caused by the delta variant, in the middle of the stagnant vaccination and few restrictions anti-virus.

The government has reported 895 deaths in the past 24 hours, the highest in the country since the start of the pandemic. The new figure brings the total of deaths from COVID-19 to 211,696, the highest rate from Europe.

Authorities are accused of downplaying the severity of the epidemic and of failing to take adequate health measures against the coronavirus. The Kremlin said the situation was concerning, but has yet to consider a national quarantine or other measures across the country.

Several Russian regions have limited the capacity of massive events and restricted access to certain public spaces such as theaters, cinemas, restaurants and bars, to people who have been vaccinated, recently recovered from COVID-19 or who have tested negative within the previous 72 hours.

However, critics claimed that these measures were not enough to stop the rebound.

In parts of the country, like Moscow and St. Petersburg, life went on as usual, with businesses open and poorly compliant with mask regulations.

Russia, the fifth most affected country in the world With more than seven million recorded cases, it has seen infections increase as vaccination stalls.

Moscow, the epicenter of the outbreak, has peaked in recent weeks and authorities are warning of increasing hospital admissions.

Russian media reported that long lines of ambulances reformed in front of hospitals in St. Petersburg, the country’s second largest city.

A desperate team of ambulances in the city of Vladimir, 180 kilometers east of Moscow, took a COVID-19 patient to a local government building after failing to find her a hospital bed.

Russia struggles to convince vaccine skeptics to get vaccinated, and independent polls show more than half of Russians do not plan to be vaccinated.

Last week, 33.5% of Russia’s 146 million people had received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and only 27.4% had completed the vaccination.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attributed the slowness of the process to the lack of a campaign “explain that there are no alternatives” vaccination.

In a broader definition of coronavirus-related deaths, the Rostat statistical agency reported in August that Russia has already counted more than 350,000 dead.

With information from the AFP and AP agency