Coronavirus cases surge in Russia, tally now third highest globally

Coronavirus cases surge in Russia, tally now third highest globally

A new surge in coronavirus cases took Russia's tally past those in Italy and the UK on Monday, making it the third highest in the world.

Joe Davies reports.

A new surge in coronavirus cases took Russia's tally past those in Italy and the UK on Monday (May 11), making it the third highest in the world.

The number of new cases rose by a record daily amount to 11,656 over the last 24 hours.

It brings the total number of confirmed cases in Russia to more than 221,000.

Only Spain and the United States have recorded more cases than the world's biggest country.

More than half of all cases and deaths in Russia are in Moscow.

The country's coronavirus response centre also reported 94 new deaths, taking the death toll to just over 2,000.

That's far lower than in many countries, something Kremlin critics have queried.

Government officials attribute the lower death toll and the rising number of cases to a vast testing program.

They say more than 5.6 million tests have been conducted.

Moscow and other Russian regions are in their seventh week of lockdown.

President Putin has ordered the government to come up with a plan to get the economy moving again by June 1.