Russia reports 8,731 new COVID-19 cases, 397 deaths

Russia reported 8,731 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, including 2,662 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 4,805,288.

The government coronavirus task force said 397 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 110,128.

The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and reported a toll of more than 225,000 from April 2020 to February.