– Russia on Friday recorded its highest number of daily COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began with 828 lives lost over the previous 24 hours. This brings the death toll from the pandemic in the country to 202,273, according to the official tally kept by the Russian Coronavirus Taskforce. It is the highest in Europe. The national statistics agency, Rosstat, which has a broader definition of what constitutes a COVID-19 death, had registered more than 215,000 COVID fatalities by the end of July. The previous one-day death record was 820, reached on Thursday and in late August. The number of new cases has dipped slightly compared to the previous day but remains higher than 21,000, a level last reached in late August when infections were starting their climb down from a summer surge. The flare-up of infections over the summer months was blamed on the Delta variant. Russia, which has touted its home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, has struggled to vaccinate its population with just 28% of its 144.4 million population fully vaccinated, according to Our World in Data. The US has so far fully inoculated 54% of its population, with European countries and China registering higher rates. This is despite several regions having rolled out mandatory vaccination for certain professions and imposed restrictions on capacity and opening hours on venues including bars and restaurants. In Moscow, large events and venues including nightclubs are limited to 500 people with everyone required to present a COVID health pass attesting they have either been fully vaccinated, have tested negative over the previous 72 hours or recovered from the disease over the previous six months. -- Euronews