COVID-19: Russia sees record daily death toll with 652 fatalities

Russian health authorities on Tuesday reported the country's highest one-day death toll since the COVID-19 pandemic began, with 652 lives lost over the previous 24 hours.

Moscow, the capital, recorded 121 deaths while the second city, St Petersburg — which will host the EURO 2020 quarterfinal between Switzerland and Spain on Friday — deplored the death of 119 people, its highest daily tally since the global health crisis started.

The previous record dates back from December when the country was battling a second wave.

Russia, Europe's worst-affected country with 134,545 deaths, has in recent weeks been hit by a surge of Delta variant cases.

The spread of the variant "of concern" and the soaring infections numbers have prompted the authorities to reintroduce measures to curb the spread of the virus.

In Moscow, the EURO 2020 fan zone was closed and local authorities also ordered that all food courts in shopping centres be closed.

Several regions, including Moscow, have also introduced mandatory vaccination for some sectors to boost the low vaccine uptake.

According to Our World in Data, only 15% of the country's 146 million inhabitants have received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to 49.8% in the EU, 53.6% in the US and 65.5% in the UK.