Russia

MOSCOW, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Russia has confirmed 9,974 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, raising its total number of infections to 252,245, its coronavirus response center said in a statement Thursday.

The single-day increase has fallen below 10,000 for the first time over the past 12 days, the center's data showed.

The death toll climbed by 93 to 2,305, while 53,530 people have now recovered, including 5,527 over the last 24 hours, the statement said.

VLADIVOSTOK, May 14. /TASS/: The Pacific Fleet’s naval taskforce comprising the corvettes Sovershenny and Gromky held drills of anti-terror groups during its long-distance deployment to the Pacific, the Fleet’s press office reported on Thursday.

"The personnel of the squad for fighting subversive forces and capabilities who provide the security of ships during their transit by sea practiced the assignment of defending the corvettes against the threat of an attack by a surface fast-speed small-sized target," the press office said in a statement.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, May 14. /TASS/: The domestic coronavirus situation is changing, allowing the country to again focus on other issues of the current and long-term agenda of its development, Russian President Vladimir Putin told a meeting devoted to genetic technologies on Thursday.

The Russian leader stressed that over the past weeks the authorities had focused all efforts mainly on combating the coronavirus pandemic and preparing urgent measures in order to support citizens and national economy.

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/: Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova has returned to work after recovering from the coronavirus, as she herself told TASS on Thursday.

"Doctors released me and I have returned to work," she said, adding: "I feel well." "Fortunately, I had a mild form of the disease," she noted.

The culture minister received treatment at home. "It was more difficult to work under quarantine but I maintained contact with all of the ministry’s departments and the expert community," Lyubimova pointed out.

MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/: The number of COVID-19 cases in Russia has risen by 9,974 over the past day to 252,245, the anti-coronavirus crisis center reported on Thursday.

For the first time since May 2, the number of coronavirus cases recorded per day in the country was less than 10,000.

According to the crisis center, the daily growth in cases has dropped from 4.3% to a record low of 4.1%.

Moscow has confirmed 4,712 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total tally to 130,716. The daily growth in infections in the capital reached 3.7% against 3.9% a day earlier.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: Officers of the US embassy and other diplomatic missions cannot give evidence on the case of US citizen Paul Whelan, who is currently in custody in Russia on suspicion of espionage, although his defense planned to interview them as witnesses, Whelan’s defense attorney Olga Karlova told TASS on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s order to launch an offensive against the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) and the suspension of the release of Taliban prisoners will halt the process of launching intra-Afghan negotiations, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan and Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Second Asia Department Zamir Kabulov told TASS on Wednesday.

"This is regrettable, because by his actions the head of the Kabul administration actually stalls the process of moving towards the launch of intra-Afghan negotiations," he said.

KHABAROVSK, May 13. /TASS/: Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a labor migrant from a Central Asian country in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk over calls for financing terrorism and carrying out terrorist attacks, the FSB press service said.

"The FSB officers have detained a 26-year-old national of a Central Asian republic over public calls in the Internet for committing terrorism-related crimes and justifying terrorism," the statement said. He has been placed in custody.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: The first vaccines against the novel coronavirus may appear in Russia in late July, Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko stated on Wednesday during a plenary session of the Russian State Duma.

"I hope that in July, most likely in the last ten days of July, the first drugs will arrive," he said in response to a question by Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin. Earlier, Murashko noted that some drugs against the novel coronavirus may enter clinical practice in Russia over the next few weeks, with some of them replacing foreign drugs.

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/: Russia has documented 10,028 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the past 24 hours, with the total amount of cases reaching 242,271, the Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

According to the crisis center, the daily increase in cases has gone down to 4.3% compared to 4.9% a day earlier. The officials noted that 4,461 of newly diagnosed patients (44.5%) do not exhibit symptoms of the disease.