Moscow (AFP)

Russia, grappling with a new epidemic wave of Covid-19 due to the Delta variant, on Monday announced new daily death records in its two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Saint Petersburg (northeast) is under pressure as the host of Euro-2020 football matches.

However, the organizers assure that the quarter-final will take place on Friday, to pit the winner of France-Switzerland against that of Croatia-Spain.

According to official data, Moscow has recorded 124 deaths and St. Petersburg 110 in the past 24 hours, surpassing the records the two cities had already broken over the weekend.

Russia, one of the countries hardest hit in the world by the pandemic, has been hit for a few weeks by the Delta variant, more contagious, which worries the whole world.

Across the country, 21,650 new people have been infected, according to figures released Monday, and 611 people have died.

According to the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, nearly 2,000 people are hospitalized every day because of Covid-19 in the capital and nearly 75% of the available beds are occupied.

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"Last week, we broke the records of hospitalizations, people in intensive care and the number of deaths," he noted, quoted by the Ria Novosti agency.

In an attempt to stem the epidemic, Moscow has reimposed teleworking for at least 30% of unvaccinated employees, compulsory vaccination of service employees or the creation of a health pass to go to restaurants, which entered into force on Monday.

Monday noon, Olga Dombak had lunch alone in an Italian establishment in the city center.

Vaccinated a month ago, she said that getting her pass was "very easy".

"Being alone in the restaurant room, on the one hand, is nice. But it's also a little sad," said the 31-year-old engineer.

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General containment, as in spring 2020, is not envisaged in the city of more than 12 million inhabitants in order to preserve the economy.

- Euro as expected -

In St. Petersburg, despite the deterioration in health, "the quarter-final will take place as planned", however told AFP the press service of the Organizing Committee of the Euro in the city.

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A spokesperson for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) said that the situation "changes absolutely nothing for the teams", and that it was "not planned to change the venue of the match".

The France team plans a priori to fly to Russia on Wednesday in the event of qualification on Monday evening, we learned from the management of the world champions, who said to remain vigilant on the disinfection of spaces that the Blues will be brought in to patronize.

The Russian authorities have said since the start of the Euro that all health measures have been taken.

However, the Finnish authorities expressed their concern last Thursday after the detection of nearly a hundred cases among supporters returning from St. Petersburg.

The measures of distancing and the wearing of the mask are very uncertain in the city, as elsewhere in the country, while the vaccination slips there.

In this context, images showing thousands of people in the streets for a traditional rally marking the end of the school year have gone viral on social networks.

Faced with the Delta variant, more than ten Russian regions have introduced compulsory vaccination for certain categories of the population, such as Moscow.

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Because the immunization campaign has been lagging behind since December, against the backdrop of general public mistrust of Russian vaccines and despite repeated calls from President Vladimir Putin.

"The demand for vaccines has increased" in recent days, however, noted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without giving further details.

Only 21.8 million people out of 146 million inhabitants received at least one dose, according to Monday's figures from the Gogov site, which aggregates data from regions and media for lack of official national statistics.

Russia is, with 133,893 deaths recorded by the government, the most bereaved European country.

The Rosstat statistics agency, which has a broader definition of Covid-related deaths, had counted some 270,000 deaths at the end of April 2021.

© 2021 AFP