Russia reports over 18,000 new cases for 4th straight day
Russia confirmed 18,257 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, according to the country's coronavirus response headquarters.
It's the fourth straight day that Russia has reported over 18,000 new infections. The latest daily tally falls just short of the country's all-time high of 18,665 new cases in a 24-hour reporting period, which were confirmed a day earlier.
An additional 238 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide in the last 24 hours, down from last week's peak of 366 fatalities, according to Russia's coronavirus response headquarters.
Moscow remains the epicenter of the country's outbreak and recent surge. More than 26% of the new cases -- 4,796 -- and over 22% of the new deaths -- 53 -- were reported in the capital.
The nationwide, cumulative total now stands at 1,655,038 cases with 28,473 deaths, according to Russia's coronavirus response headquarters.
Last week, Russia’s health and consumer rights regulator, Rospotrebnadzor, introduced a nationwide mask mandate and ordered all clubs, bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues to be closed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Russian authorities have repeatedly said they will not impose another nationwide lockdown.
The Eastern European country of 145 million people has the fourth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India and Brazil, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report.