Over 10,000 for the 1st time: Russia hits new daily record for fresh coronavirus cases

With 10,633 cases registered in a single day, Russia has seen its largest daily increase in reported Covid-19 infections. While the Moscow area remains the worst affected, the disease is spreading across the country.

The number of people confirmed to have contracted coronavirus nationwide rose to 134,687 on Sunday, disease response officials said. Fifty-eight more patients have died, bringing the overall national death toll from Covid-19 to 1,280.

With over 82,700 infections recorded in Moscow and its surrounding eponymous region, the capital remains the centre of Russia's outbreak. It's followed by the second-largest city, Saint Petersburg, which has posted over 5,000. 

Remote northern Murmansk recorded a worrying 238 fresh cases, bringing its total to 1,694. The isolated province, which lies mostly inside the Arctic Circle, has a population of only 750,000.

Officials said that in more than half of the newly-recorded cases in Russia, patients were asymptomatic. 

Russia had a relatively low number of Covid-19 cases during the early days of the pandemic, but that has changed in recent weeks. On Saturday, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin cited studies that said around two percent of the city’s population has been infected. This suggests that despite a broad testing system the real infection rate is likely higher than the known total, as is also the situation in other countries. 

He told local media that it will take around two weeks of observation to determine whether the strict quarantine rules should be eased.

Russia has significantly ramped up screening for Covid-19, conducting over 4.1 million tests for the virus as of Sunday. This means the national testing rate is similar to that of Germany, and significantly higher than in the United States or United Kingdom, per capita.  

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