MOSCOW: Russia reported 23,239 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 2,629 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 6,149,780.

The government coronavirus task force said 727 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 154,601.

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Russia has been in the grip of a surge in cases that authorities blame on the more contagious Delta variant, though some officials have suggested in recent days that cases, at least in Moscow, have started to decline.