RUSSIA COVID CASES HIT 1M

The number of coronavirus cases passed 1 million on Tuesday, the Russian government said, despite an official declaration in early August that the country had a vaccine.

About 5,000 new infections are reported daily, according to The New York Times.

Experts blamed spread in hospitals, haphazard social distancing, and a faulty early test kit that produced false negatives and obscured the initial scale of the problem. The timeline for vaccinations has been pushed back to November or December, rather than October.

Despite a steady rise in cases, schools reopened on Tuesday with few precautions. Teachers were not required to wear masks. Russia now ranks fourth in the world for reported total infections after the United States, Brazil and India. About 17,300 people have died.