Russia records 33,389 daily COVID-19 cases

MOSCOW, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) — Russia confirmed 33,389 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 9,703,107, the official monitoring and response center said Thursday. The nationwide death toll increased by 1,221 to 277,640, while the number of recoveries increased by 35,185 to 8,400,117.

Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia’s worst-hit region, reported 3,805 new cases, taking its total to 1,953,279. Speaking at the “Russia Calling” investment forum on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the international community to join efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic and said “the mutual recognition of vaccines and vaccine certificates” was important.

Putin also said the Omicron variant has forced governments all over the world to resort to new restrictions, adding that it was necessary to continue to monitor how serious consequences related to the new strain would be.

Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday that Russians must be careful when planning winter vacations amid the spread of the Omicron strain.