Months after the Kremlin said it had the coronavirus pandemic under control, record numbers of Russians are falling ill and dying of the disease every day, pushing the country’s health services to the breaking point while Vladimir Putin has ruled out a new nationwide lockdown.
The official daily tally of new cases rose above 18,000 for the first time on Friday, when 355 deaths were also reported.Critics say the death toll indicated by tallies of excess deaths could be far higher. The increases have mirrored those in European countries such as France and Spain, but the brunt of the outbreak has been borne by far-flung regions that rarely make the evening news.
As opposed to the spring outbreak, when Moscow, St Petersburg and the Caucasus region were worst affected, the new rise has been driven by the disease’s spread across the the Urals, Siberia and the border with Kazakhstan, where colder weather has already driven many people indoors.
The images coming from Russia’s…
— to www.theguardian.com
