Russia recorded a record number of 34,073 cases and 1,028 deaths related to COVID-19 on Wednesday

While there are many parts of the world starting to flip the page on the pandemic, not everywhere is seeing a similar recovery story unfortunately.

Despite having its own vaccine, Russia's measly 35% vaccination rate is biting hard as we are seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases since September.

Russia

The big worry here is that local authorities are reporting that the spread of infections may be caused by the rise of a new variant i.e. AY.4.2 variant or "delta plus" variant. Adding that it could eventually replace the delta variant as the dominant breed.

Russian president Putin has already approved a week-long work shutdown for the start of November so this just adds to that as Moscow will close all restaurants and bars, as well as other non-essential shops starting from 28 October.