MOSCOW : Russia is facing a surge in COVID-19 cases that authorities blame on the highly infectious Delta variant and slow progress in vaccinating people, with deaths linked to the virus hitting a new record in Moscow on Friday.
Officials have scrambled to compel people to get inoculated amid tepid demand for the vaccine since cases spiked this month.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Friday said 21 million people had been vaccinated out of a population of 144 million. The government coronavirus task force reported 20,393 new COVID-19 cases, the most confirmed in a single day since Jan.
24, including 7,916 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,409,088. It said 601 people had died of