Russian regions extend non-working week as Covid cases continue to rise

A doctor cares for a Covid sufferer in a hospital in Krasnodar, Russia (AP Photo/Vitali Timkiv)

Daily coronavirus cases and deaths in Russia remained at their highest numbers of the pandemic on Wednesday as more regions announced extending existing restrictions in an effort to tame the country’s unrelenting surge of infections.

Russia’s state coronavirus task force reported 40,443 new confirmed cases from a day earlier. It was the fifth time in seven days that the country reported more than 40,000 infections. The task force also reported a daily record of 1,189 COVID-19 deaths.