Russia’s virus wave strong; some regions plan to resume work

By JIM HEINTZ
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has reported nearly 1,200 daily deaths from COVID-19, just short of the record in a persistent wave of coronavirus infections that closed most businesses in the country this week. The national coronavirus task force said 1,192 people died in the past 24 hours and 40,735 new infection cases were tallied. Officials blame the low vaccination rate as a major factor in the sharp rise in cases that began in mid-September. The task force on Friday reported about 57 million full-course vaccinations. That is less than 40% of the country’s 146 million people. Russia is six days into a nationwide nonworking period that the government introduced to curb the spread of the virus.