Virus toll surges in Russia as Europe speeds reopening

Russia reported a record increase of 232 coronavirus deaths on Friday, just four days before the capital Moscow is due to ease its lockdown

The death toll from the coronavirus pandemic spiked again in Russia and the Americas on Friday, even as Europe’s experiment with reopening from lockdown grew bolder by the day.

Fresh restrictions in South Korea also signalled that there will be a long road back to normality from the pandemic that has killed more than 360,000 people and hammered the global economy.

Populations are learning to adjust to life with the long-term threat of infection as COVID-19 continues its march around the globe — with more than 5.8 million cases — and a vaccine remains elusive.

Russia reported a record increase of 232 coronavirus deaths on Friday, just four days before the capital Moscow is due to ease its lockdown.

Authorities in Moscow, Russia’s virus epicentre, separately released mortality figures in a bid to dispel allegations they were under-reporting deaths.

They said a total of 1,561 people died in Moscow in connection with the coronavirus in April, of which 636 people were directly due to the disease while the others died “due to other reasons”. Only those who died directly due to the virus are included in official tolls.