Russia adds 23,120 COVID-19 infections

Russia confirmed 23,120 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 6,379,904, the official monitoring and response center said Thursday, reported Xinhua.

During this period, the nationwide death toll grew by 794 to 162,509, while the number of recoveries increased by 20,370 to 5,700,212.

Meanwhile, Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, reported 3,227 new cases, taking the city's total to 1,519,621.

Russia's consumer rights and human well-being watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said on Thursday that only mass vaccination can curb the spread of the virus.

While current research shows that existing vaccines can guard against severe forms of illness, their protective effect against the Delta variant is slightly weaker, it added, underlining the necessity to get re-vaccinated every half a year.