Russia records highest COVID-19 death toll; holds 'Delta variant' responsible for surge

Amid a surge of new COVID-19 infections and deaths in Russia, the country has reported a record of 669 deaths and 23,218 new infections on Friday. With 1,36,565 deaths from the deadly virus, it has registered the highest ever covid toll among the European countries. President Vladimir Putin, who had revealed that he took a jab of indigenously developed Sputnik V vaccine earlier this year, has urged the citizens to get a jab of the COVID-19 vaccine at the earliest possible in order to dodge the nationwide lockdown. 

Moscow Mayor blames the Delta variant

According to Moscow Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin the country has been witnessing a steep surge in covid cases due to the Delta variant-- which was first identified in India-- and added it accounts for 90 percent of cases in the Russian capital. The Moscow Mayor had recently ordered 60 percent of the city's service industry workers to be fully inoculated by mid-August, with more than a dozen Russian regions since following his lead.

In order to make a balance over the infections and economy,  Sobyanin ordered offices to allow the workforce to follow the work from home culture and directed the employers to engage with employees who had been vaccinated. Earlier, he had directed the employers to make sure that 60 per cent of their workforce who are pressed in the service industry must be fully inoculated by mid-August.

Challenge for President Vladimir Putin 

Meanwhile, authorities are having a tough time getting the skeptical population to clinics as a wide range of population believes that it had only been tested on a few dozen people at the time Russia gave a green signal to Sputnik V regulatory approval earlier in August last year. Subsequently, the criticism was blunted by a report in the British medical journal- 'The Lancet' this year as it claimed large-scale testing showed it to be safe. It also claimed the vaccine has an efficacy rate of a whopping 91%.

According to the government website, a total of 17.4 million of Russia's population had been fully vaccinated, which accounts for nearly 12 percent of the population.