MOSCOW — Moscow hospitals have been instructed to free up hundreds of beds for COVID-19 patients in response to a sharp acceleration in case numbers, four medical sources told Reuters, as the city"s mayor urged workers and the elderly to stay at home. Dozens of hospitals in the Russian capital were designated as special coronavirus centers when the pandemic struck in March but returned to treating other patients as it ebbed over the summer. Now some are reverting to COVID-only mode or partially reopening for COVID, the sources said. "This is a really big second wave," a medic at the Kommunarka hospital, one of Moscow"s main coronavirus centers, told Reuters. After the highest number of coronavirus patients since the start of the outbreak were admitted to the hospital on Thursday, it was working at 120% of normal capacity, the source said. Across Russia, officials reported 7,212 new infections on Friday, bringing the national case total to 1,136,048 — the fourth highest in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil. In Moscow, new cases rose almost 50% overnight to 1,560 from 1,050 the previous day. Russia lifted many of its lockdown restrictions in June and many shops, businesses and public transport in the capital of more than 12.5 million people are operating largely as normal. On Friday, however, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin recommended that the heads of all companies in the city switch as many of their staff as possible to working from home from Monday. — SPA