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Moscow living through coronavirus pandemic anew due to new strain, says mayor

People must be inoculated against COVID-19 to lead a normal life and there is no other way out, Sergei Sobyanin stressed

© Vladimir Gerdo/TASS

MOSCOW, June 26. /TASS/. The Moscow authorities believe that the Russian capital is living through the coronavirus pandemic anew due to a new strain, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 TV Channel on Saturday.

"The current situation suggests that we actually living through the coronavirus pandemic raging in Moscow anew," the Moscow head said.

Vaccination is the most effective method to halt the novel coronavirus infection’s spread in the Russian capital while other measures can solve the problem only for the time being, Sobyanin stressed.

"Only one thing - quick large-scale vaccination is needed to halt the pandemic. No one has devised any other method. Of course, it is necessary to comply with sanitary requirements. Of course, it is necessary to comply with the mask mandate on transport, in public places, trade outlets and so on. But these are temporary measures. It is necessary to carry out vaccination or impose a lockdown and close all outlets to radically solve the problem," the Moscow mayor said.

People must be inoculated against COVID-19 to lead a normal life and there is no other way out, Sobyanin stressed.

Coronavirus cases in Moscow grew by 8,457 in the past 24 hours compared to 7,916 a day before to 1,332,214, the federal anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Saturday.

Ninety-six coronavirus patients died at Moscow hospitals in the past day compared to an all-time high of 98 fatalities registered a day before. Overall, 21,972 coronavirus patients have died in Moscow since the start of the pandemic or 1.65% of all infections in the Russian capital, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported.

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