Russia reports record Covid deaths as official toll reaches 210,000

Russia has reported a record number of Covid deaths for four of the past six days, as the country experiences a devastating fourth wave caused by the Delta variant and a low vaccination rate of under 30% of the adult population. On Monday, 883 deaths and 25,781 new coronavirus cases were reported, taking the official death toll to 210,000. Calculations based on publicly available mortality data suggest that the “excess death” toll between the start of the pandemic and July this year is nearly 600,000. The pandemic has reached Russia’s leadership. Last month, Vladimir Putin was forced to go into self-isolation after “several dozen people” in the president’s inner circle tested positive.