DELTA: Virus deaths in Russia hit record for third time this month

Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit a record for the third time this month on Tuesday, and new infections once again exceeded 25,000 a day — a surge that comes as vaccination rates in the country remain stagnantly low and the government shuns imposing tough restrictions to stem the spread.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 25,110 new confirmed cases on Tuesday and 895 new deaths — the country’s highest daily death toll in the pandemic. This month, records in fatalities came every other day: the previous record, of 890 deaths, was registered on Sunday, and the one before that, of 887 deaths, occurred on Friday.

Officials have blamed low vaccine uptake. As of last week, 33.5% of Russia’s 146-million population have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, and just 27.4% have been fully vaccinated. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attributed the slow pace of the immunization drive to “an insufficiently active campaign explaining that there are no alternatives” to vaccination.