Moscow’s Covid-19 death toll passes 300 mark as mayor warns peak yet to come

The coronavirus death toll in the Russian capital surpassed the 300 mark on Thursday, when 37 more people succumbed to the disease, according to the latest official figures. Moscow remains the worst-affected place in Russia, with over half of the country's confirmed cases originating there there. Nationwide, 62,773 people have been affected by the Covid-19 with nearly 600 dying from it.

Moscow’s mayor on Thursday said the existing lockdown measures and the mandatory self-isolation mode remain “optimal” for the city.

“The majority of Moscow’s residents are behaving very responsibly, enabling us not to tighten the standing administrative measures,” Sergey Sobyanin said in a televised speech, adding that Moscow’s situation favorably compares with that in other big cities plagued by the disease, such as New York.

However, the curve of the registered infections remains far from flat, the mayor said, adding that Moscow could be less than “half way through” the outbreak.