‘Explosive’ Covid surge in Russia as Moscow reports record daily deaths

Some 98 deaths logged in capital in past 24 hours

(AP)

Russia's Covid outbreak has become "explosive", the mayor of Moscow said as health officials in the capital recorded a daily record number of deaths.

The government coronavirus task force also reported 20,393 virus cases, including 7,916 in Moscow, the most confirmed in a single day since 24 Jan.

It brings the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,409,088.

Officials said 601 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, 98 of them in Moscow, pushing the national death toll to 132,064. St Petersburg also reported 98 deaths.

Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow - who has also played a leading role in Russia's response to the pandemic - said "the situation has become explosive".

The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has said Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to Covid from April 2020 to April 2021.

Moscow's authorities have ordered bars and restaurants from Monday to serve people only if they can present a QR-code showing they have been vaccinated, had an infection indicating immunity or recently tested negative.

As demand for the shots boomed, the Kremlin said on Friday vaccine shortages in Russia were also linked to storage difficulties, and that shortages would be resolved in the coming days.

The local health ministry in Russia's far eastern Khabarovsk region on Friday said it had been forced to suspend vaccinations at some sites in two cities due to shortages.

It came as Russia launched its fourth vaccine against Covid, the one-dose Sputnik Light, the Kommersant daily reported.

Sputnik Light deploys just the first dose of Russia's flagship Sputnik V vaccine, which uses a first shot and booster separated by a gap of at least 21 days.

The decision to approve and deploy Sputnik Light was driven by the fact that the first component of the standard vaccine was produced in significantly larger quantities than the second dose, Kommersant cited a government source as saying.

Reuters previously reported that the second dose of Sputnik V is more volatile and harder to produce.

Russia is on the cusp of launching an official re-vaccination programme amid a sharp rise in cases and the spread of the Delta variant.

The one-dose Sputnik Light will be used as the booster shot for Russians vaccinated with their first two doses six months ago or more, officials have said.

Additional reporting by Reuters