Russia registers record for virus-linked deaths in October

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s state statistics agency says that 74,893 people with COVID-19 died in October — the highest monthly tally in the pandemic that comes as Russia is grappling with a major surge of coronavirus infections and deaths. A report released by Rosstat on Friday brought the overall number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 to over 537,000 — almost twice the widely-cited toll reported by Russia’s state coronavirus task force to date. Russia in recent months has faced its deadliest and largest surge of coronavirus cases, with officially reported infections and deaths regularly hitting all-time highs and only slowing in the past couple of weeks.