Russia sees record 74,692 new cases of Covid-19, 657 deaths in past 24 hours - HQ

MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) - Russia has registered 74,692 new cases of Covid-19, or 6,883 more than the day before, as well as 657 deaths in the past 24 hours, the coronavirus response headquarters said in a statement on Wednesday.

"As of January 26, Russia has recorded 74,692 new cases of Covid and 657 deaths," the headquarters said.

Omicron cases have been reported from 72 regions, or 17 regions more than on January 20. The new variant of the novel coronavirus was reported from 68 Russian regions on Tuesday.

The number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients has reduced by 4.8% day on day to 12,226 in the past 24 hours, the headquarters said.

On Tuesday, the headquarters reported a 115% spike in hospitalizations, compared to January 24.

"The number of hospitalizations has reduced in 49 constituent territories of Russia. The hospitalization rate has grown in 34 regions and remained unchanged in two regions. Over the past day, 28,197 patients have recovered, which is 6.8% more than on January 25," the headquarters said.

The number of new coronavirus infections grew by 6,883 day on day, the headquarters said.

Meanwhile, the mortality curve has been flat for over a week, and no more than 700 deaths from Covid-19 have been reported daily, which is similar to the level of late June - early July 2021.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic in Russia, it has registered a total of 11,315,801 cases of Covid-19, including 328,105 deaths and 10,099,937 recoveries.

The Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said on Wednesday that Russia has performed more than 251.6 million Covid-19 diagnostic tests to date, including 543,000 over the past day. As many as 1,870,804 people remain under medical observation.