Russian authorities announced on Tuesday that the country’s COVID-19 caseload had exceeded one million, the world’s fourth largest, according to international statistics.
Russia has regularly reported a daily rise of several thousand cases in recent weeks.
Tuesday’s caseload rose by more than 4,700 from the previous day to reach 1,000,048, according to official statistics.
While Russia has one of the world’s highest caseloads, its recorded death toll has been relatively small, with about 17,300 deaths reported as of Tuesday.
Russia only includes deaths directly linked to the disease in that statistic.
Patients who tested positive but died from other factors have not been included in the death toll.
Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said this week that the country would begin large-scale provision of its COVID-19 vaccine in September.
Russia was the first country to introduce a vaccine for the novel COVID-19 that it says can be used by the general public.
Medics around the world have expressed skepticism over the vaccine, which they say has not yet undergone necessary testing procedures.
About 40,000 volunteers are in a phase 3 trial of the vaccine, state media have reported.
The vaccine has been named Sputnik, in honour of the first man-made satellite to achieve orbit, a feat accomplished in the late 1950s by Russia’s predecessor state, the Soviet Union, in the space race with rival superpower the U.S.
Endorsing the vaccine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that one of his daughters has used it successfully, without any side effect worse than a slight, temporary fever.
