Russians go back to work but virus cases, deaths stay high

By DARIA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russians have gone back to work after a nine-day break that was ordered by authorities to tame a record-breaking surge of coronavirus infections and deaths. Still, daily numbers of new cases and deaths have remained high throughout the non-working period. Officials in the Kremlin said on Monday that it was too early to tell whether the measure had the desired effect. Russia has the worst coronavirus death toll by far in Europe and is one of the top five hardest-hit nations in the world.  Russia’s coronavirus task force reported 39,400 new infections and 1,190 deaths on Monday — numbers only slightly lower than records set last week.