Covid Cases In Moscow Hit Record High For Second Straight Day

The new wave of COVID-19 infections came as Russia's second city of Saint Petersburg is slated to host several Euro 2020 matches.

Russia's capital Moscow on Saturday reported a pandemic high for new coronavirus cases for the second straight day, while Saint Petersburg introduced fresh restrictions ahead of its Euro 2020 matches. Brazil's death count from the pandemic meanwhile passed the half-million-mark on Saturday. Moscow's hospitals were flooded with new patients due to the Delta variant, registering 9,120 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours, according to government figures. That made it a second consecutive high, topping the previous day's total of 9,056 cases. Those figures have ballooned from just 3,000 daily two weeks ago, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin saying the highly infectious Delta variant first identified in India represented nearly 90 per cent of new cases.