Russia reports 24,072 new COVID-19 cases, 779 related deaths

Russia reported 24,072 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, including 3,406 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,126,541.

The government coronavirus task force said 779 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 153,874.

Russia has been in the grip of a surge in cases that authorities blame on the more contagious Delta variant, though some officials have suggested in recent days that cases, at least in Moscow, have started to decline.