Russia's capital Moscow on Saturday registered 9,120 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours, a second consecutive high, according to government figures.
Saturday's record topped the previous day's total of 9,056 new infections, according to the government's coronavirus tally, ballooning from 3,000 daily just two weeks ago.
The new cases are being driven by the highly infectious Delta variant first identified in India and have threatened to overwhelm Moscow's hospitals, as officials rush to roll out new beds for Covid patients.
To deal with the onslaught of new patients, Deputy Moscow Mayor Anastasia Rakova said in a statement that the city would expand hospital beds to 24,000 from 17,000 over the next two weeks.