Covid-19 cases up to record 65,109 in Russia, 655 die in past 24 hours - HQ

MOSCOW. Jan 24 (Interfax) - Russia has registered 65,109 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, or 1,900 infections more than the day before, and 655 patients have died from Covid-19, the coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement on Monday.

"As of January 24, Russia has recorded 65,109 cases of Covid-19 and 655 patients have died," the headquarters said.

Same as on Sunday, the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus has been observed in 64 regions of Russia, it said.

"The Omicron variant is currently observed in 64 regions of the country. As of this day, the Delta variant accounts for 51.7% of all new cases, while Omicron and other non-prevailing strains account for 48.3%," the headquarters said.

The number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients dropped by 3.9% to 5,970 over the past day, it said.

"As of January 24, the number of hospitalizations has been declining in 49 constituent territories of Russia, while 34 regions have seen an increase in hospitalizations, and there has been no change in two regions. The number of daily recoveries stood at 21,714, or 5.8% less than on January 23," the headquarters said.

The coronavirus morbidity curve is rising in Russia. As epidemiologists have warned, the Omicron variant's spread makes the surge swift. The number of cases has grown by 1,904 day on day, the headquarters said.

Meanwhile, the death toll has been practically unchanged, about 700, for over a week now.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Russia has seen a total of 11,173,300 coronavirus cases, including 326,767 deaths and 10,045,336 recoveries.

The Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said on Monday that Russia has performed more than 250.6 million Covid-19 diagnostic tests to date, including 621,000 over the past day. As many as 1,547,985 people remain under medical observation.