Russia reports 6,800 new coronavirus cases

The number of new coronavirus cases in Russia identified over the past 24 hours dropped to 6,800, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said at a meeting Friday.

"I note that today the number of newly identified cases will already drop below 7,000 to amount to 6,800. We are very glad to have these numbers and hope that this trend will continue in the days and weeks to come," she said.

According to the Russian federal anti-coronavirus crisis center, Russia identified fewer than 7,000 new infections for the first time since April 29. TASS calculations show that the daily increase in coronavirus infections in Russia dropped to the record-low of 1.1%.

Golikova underlined that it is imperative to keep working to protect and boost the trend. "I would like to again draw attention to the death rate numbers. I know that practically all [Russian] regions are making efforts to save as many human lives as possible despite serious and critical conditions. Nevertheless, there is still a significant number of deaths," the deputy prime minister added. It is important to try to save lives of people "until the very end," Golikova pointed out.