Daily virus cases in Russia double as omicron spreads

By DASHA LITVINOVA
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities have reported a sharp spike in new coronavirus cases apparently driven by the rapid spread of the omicron variant health officials warned about last week. The country’s state coronavirus task force on Monday registered 30,726 new infections. That’s twice as many as 15,830 just a week ago. Infections in Russia have been steadily climbing all of last week. And officials sounded the alarm about a looming surge of cases driven by the rapid spread of the highly contagious omicron variant. But early studies show omicron is less likely to cause severe illness than the previous delta variant.