Russia registers over 20,000 new cases for 5th day in a row
Russia confirmed 20,977 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, marking the fifth consecutive day where daily infections exceeded 20,000.
An additional 368 deaths from COVID-19 were also registered nationwide over the past day. The cumulative total now stands at 1,817,109 cases with 31,161 deaths, according to Russia's coronavirus response headquarters.
Moscow remains the epicenter of the country's outbreak and recent surge. More than 28% of the newly confirmed cases -- 5,902 -- and over 18% of the new deaths -- 68 -- were reported in the capital, according to the coronavirus response headquarters.

Despite rising infections, Russian authorities have repeatedly said they have no plans to impose another nationwide lockdown.
The Eastern European country of 145 million people has the fifth-highest tally of COVID-19 cases in the world, behind only the United States, India, Brazil and France, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
ABC News' Alina Lobzina contributed to this report.






