Putin remembers the deceased with Covid in his New Year's address

Russian President Vladimir Putin remembered the tens of thousands of COVID-19 deaths in his New Year address Friday, and encouraged the people to look forward to a positive future.

"The malignant disease has claimed tens of thousands of lives," Putin said, commenting on the high daily death rate of about a thousand people.

He added, "I would like to express my sincere condolences to all those who lost their relatives and close ones."

In his speech, which was broadcast on state television, Putin also saluted those who "saved the lives of patients and took care of them".

So far, about 300,000 Russians have died of COVID-19, according to official statistics.

On the other hand, government data showed that the vaccination rate reached 61.8 percent, which means that 74.5 million people have received all their doses of the vaccine against corona.

"We faced enormous challenges, but we learned to live in these harsh conditions and deal with difficult tasks," Putin said.

He told viewers that Russia had overcome many difficulties over the past year.

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