MOSCOW: Coronavirus deaths in Russia hit a record on Friday for the fourth straight day, and confirmed cases continued to surge as well.
Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 887 deaths, the country's highest daily number in the pandemic. The previous record, from a day earlier, stood at 867.
The task force also reported 24,522 new confirmed cases from Thursday -- the highest daily tally since late July.
“The dynamic is bad. It elicits concern,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
The Russian government has no plans to impose a lockdown, according to Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, the head of the task force.
Russia has had only one nationwide lockdown, at the beginning of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. The country’s authorities have shunned imposing tough restrictions ever since.
Peskov pointed out that many regional governments have their own infection-control measures, but he wouldn’t say whether the Kremlin considered those rules sufficient.