Moscow recorded a new record for cases of coronavirus contamination on Saturday for the second day in a row, with 9,120 infections in 24 hours, according to government figures.
Read also: Covid-19: should we really be afraid of the Indian variant?
Already on Friday, the Russian capital had registered 9,056 new cases, according to government statistics, against around 3,000 daily cases two weeks ago.
This Covid-19 outbreak is due, according to the authorities, to the Delta variant, which has appeared in India and which threatens to overwhelm hospitals in the capital.
Faced with this situation, the deputy mayor of Moscow, Anastasia Rakova, announced in a statement that the city will increase the number of hospital beds for Covid patients from 17,000 to 24,000 over the next two weeks.
Number of new cases of contamination in Russia JHU CSSE COVID-19 Data
Epicenter of the pandemic in Russia, the capital of 12 to 13 million inhabitants recorded this Saturday more than half of the number of cases in the country.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Friday that nearly 90% of patients were infected with the Delta variant.
He had been forced to reintroduce restrictions in the capital, but which remain limited in order to preserve the economy.
Vaccination partially compulsory
The mayor announced on Friday the cancellation of entertainment events for more than 1,000 people, resulting in the closure of the Euro football fan-zone at the Luzhniki Olympic complex.
He extended until June 29 the closure, decreed last weekend, of restaurants, shopping centers or public park facilities, such as playgrounds.
Sergei Sobyanin also decreed on Wednesday compulsory vaccination of employees in the service sector.
Some 60% of them, or about two million people, must be vaccinated by August 15.
To read also: "Seen from elsewhere" N ° 38 - Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine in orbit
The recent outbreak was helped by a laborious vaccination campaign, with Russians overwhelmingly suspicious of vaccines developed in their country, the lack of restrictions for months and failure to comply with distancing and mask-wearing rules.
Since December, only 19.4 million Russians out of 146 million have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Russia is the most bereaved European country with 128,445 deaths recorded by the government.