Russia has been fighting to control the coronavirus pandemic and now the country has reported the highest death toll for second consecutive day.

The Putin-led government reported 857 Covid-related deaths in the past 24 hours, and 22,430 coronavirus cases.

For the second consecutive day, the country has reported high number of fatalities due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic. The record high number of deaths have taken the toll to 206,388.

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Russia now has the highest death toll in Europe now and it is also the fifth worst hit country by Covid in the world.

Moscow, the capital city, has observed an alarming spike in the past week and the authorities are worried that this may overwhelm the Covid hospitals.

“The situation is a serious reason not only for concern but also for mobilisation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

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Authorities are also urging people to get vaccinated against coronavirus as soon as possible to make sure the chain of infections can be broken. Moscow, and a few other regions, had also started mandatory vaccine for all locals in summer but the programme was paused for technical reasons.

Meanwhile, the number of anti-vaxxers and vaccine hesitant population seems to be growing and locals have been trying to resist getting vaccinated.

At the start of this week, only 30 per cent of the population have been fully vaccinated.