MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/. The Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center on Friday reported 232 new coronavirus deaths in past 24 hours in the country, which is 30% higher than previous record-highs set this week twice on Tuesday and Thursday.

Overall, the crisis center data shows 4,374 died from coronavirus in Russia or 1.13% of all infections. The mortality rate continues to slowly climb as last Friday it stood at 1%.

In Moscow, the city where medical services identified 2,330 coronavirus deaths, the mortality rate is slightly higher (1.33% compared to yesterday’s 1.3%). On Thursday, Moscow authorities presented reviewed mortality data for April updated in accordance with the national health ministry recommendations. According to the authorities, the mortality rate turned out to be higher than crisis center reports showed - from 1.4% to 2.8%.

These numbers, however, still are much lower than the global average. The Moscow health department recalled that New York’s death rate is as high as 10% according to official data, while London’s mortality rate is above 20%.

Infection rate increase almost stopped

The number of newly confirmed cases in Russia rose by 8,572 to bring the total to 387,623. Therefore, the daily increase stands at 2.3% just as yesterday.

However, the number of active cases is practically not rising anymore since there were 223,916 such cases on Thursday and 223,992 today, an increase of 76 cases (0.03%).

The reproduction number (R value) of coronavirus in Russia dropped again to 0.95 from 0.97.

At the same time, the country continues to ramp up vital testing capabilities. The Russian consumer watchdog informed the public that the country had performed 10 million tests, with almost one million tests carried out in four days as 9 million conducted coronavirus tests were reported on May 26.

Moreover, recoveries are also steadily growing. In the past 24 hours, 8,264 more people recovered, taking the total to 159,257 (41% of all infections). A week ago, on May 22, the recovery share only crossed 30%.

Regions ease restrictions

While Russian regions are generally extending lockdown measures, some restrictions are eased simultaneously. The Moscow Region followed Moscow’s suit, announcing Thursday evening that outdoor exercises and walks will be allowed with strict adherence to consumer watchdog recommendations but without a walking schedule designating specific days when people living in different districts can go outside introduced in Moscow to limit the number of people outside at one time. Moreover, parks, most shops and certain services will reopen as well.

In Moscow and the Moscow Region, the R value (indispensable number when making decisions on lifting restrictions) has been consistently below 1 since May 11 and 15 respectively. On Friday, Moscow saw it dropping to 0.83, while the Moscow Region’s reproduction number remained unchanged at 0.94.

St. Petersburg, the city with third highest number of infections in the country, also announced gradual easing of the coronavirus restrictions.

Coronavirus pandemic

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.