Covid-19 cases hit record levels in Moscow

Moscow, Jun 18 (EFE).- Covid-19 infections in the Russian capital Moscow hit record levels with 9,056 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours, health authorities said Friday.

Faced with a jump in cases, Moscow officials have ordered the compulsory vaccination of at least 60% of workers in the city and ramped up restrictions.

More than 17,000 Covid-19 cases and 450 deaths were reported in Russia in the last 24 hours. Some 78 deaths were recorded in Moscow.

The number of requests for vaccines has quadrupled in Moscow, local health authorities said.

There are four domestically-produced Covid-19 shots in Russia — Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, CoviVac and Sputnik light — but the scheme has rolled out slowly, predominantly due to reluctance in the general population.

Russia has registered more than 5.2 million Covid-19 cases and 128,445 deaths since the pandemic began, making it sixth-worst hit nation in terms of infections after the United States, India, Brazil, France and Turkey. EFE

bsi/jt/mp