Russia recorded 1,178 coronavirus fatalities in the past 24 hours, the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic, the Tass news agency reported. Coronavirus deaths hit another daily record on Tuesday, four days since a nationwide order for many Russians to stay off work took effect. Russia's coronavirus cases rose by 39,008 in the past 24 hours, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said. This is the lowest daily number of cases in a week. According to data from the crisis center, the country's coronavirus growth rate was 0.46%. The center has reported record daily infections or deaths almost every day for the last month. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a nationwide non-working period for Oct. 30-Nov. 7. Putin has said that governments in regions where the situation is most dire could add more non-working days, if needed. The Novgorod region became the first one to do so Monday, extending the period by another week. Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday brushed off rumors that the non-working period could be prolonged for all of Russia. He stressed that regional governments have been empowered to introduce their own measures to curb the outbreak. Russia's weekslong surge in infections and deaths comes amid low vaccination rates, lax public attitudes toward taking precautions and the government's reluctance to toughen restrictions. Less than 35% of Russia's nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated so far, even though Russia approved a domestically developed vaccine against the coronavirus months before most countries, the Associated Press reported. Putin on Monday described the situation with COVID-19 in Russia as "very difficult." The state coronavirus crisis center has reported nearly 8.6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 240,000 deaths in the pandemic — by far the highest death toll in Europe. The number of coronavirus patients discharged over the past 24 hours in Russia has increased by 30,905. In all, 7,412,631 patients have recovered. This is a new record since the onset of the pandemic. However, reports by Russia's state statistical service Rosstat that tally coronavirus-linked deaths retroactively reveal much higher mortality numbers. A report released last week indicated that some 462,000 people with COVID-19 died between April 2020 and September of this year. — Agencies
