Russia’s COVID-19 tally hits pandemic record due to omicron

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s daily count of new coronavirus infections surged to more than 121,000, an eightfold increase compared with the beginning of the month as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads through the country.  The state coronavirus task force reported 121,288 new infections over the past 24 hours — an all-time high and  8,000 more than were recorded a day earlier. The country’s infection numbers have rocketed since early January, when about 15,000 new cases per day were tallied. The task force said 668 people died of COVID-19 in the past day, bring Russia’s total fatality count for the pandemic to 330,728, by far the largest in Europe.