MOSCOW 

Russia registered on Sunday another spike of coronavirus cases as a new record number of people tested positive over the last 24 hours.

The tally rose to 80,949 with the new 6,361 cases reported since Saturday, the country's emergency team said in a statement.

The number of fatalities showed a new high as well, as the infection claimed 66 more lives, taking the death toll to 747, it said.

Some 517 people were discharged from hospitals since yesterday, the total number of recoveries reached 6,767.

Although the numbers continue growing, the authorities said the spread of COVID-19 slowed down, an average daily rise in the number of people infected this week decreased to 9.5% from 15.3% a week earlier.

The rise in the number of infected people was 88.9% in seven days, compared to 171.1% last week.

The virus has spread to 185 countries and regions since emerging in China last December.

More than 2.9 million cases have been reported worldwide, with the death toll exceeding 203,300, according to data compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.