Moscow - Russia recorded a fresh record increase in daily coronavirus cases yesterday, pushing the world's fourth highest infection tally towards 1.3 million.

The coronavirus task force said it had recorded 13,634 new cases in the last 24 hours, including 4,501 in Moscow. The capital city of nearly 13 million has been the hardest-hit area.

It has opened two temporary hospitals and ordered businesses to have at least 30% of staff working remotely. "In a few months there will be a vaccine, which will allow people to be vaccinated on a large scale," Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin was quoted as saying yesterday by state media.

Russia in August became the first country to grant regulatory approval for a Covid-19 vaccine, doing so before large-scale trials were complete, to the concern of some in the global scientific community.

About 400 high-risk patients have received jabs, according to the health ministry, but the vaccine is not yet in general circulation. "This story will end, but we have to get through it without losses," added Sobyanin.

Russia's health ministry last week recommended that people stay at home this weekend in the nation of about 145-million people that has now recorded 1,298,718 cases, behind only the US, India and Brazil.The coronavirus task force said yesterday that 149 people had died overnight, pushing the death toll to 22,597. - Reuters