MOSCOW, July 5 - Russia reported 24,353 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, including 6,557 in Moscow, taking the official national tally since the pandemic began to 5,635,294.

The government coronavirus task force said 654 people had died of coronavirus-linked causes in the past 24 hours, pushing the national death toll to 138,579.

The federal statistics agency has kept a separate count and has said Russia recorded around 270,000 deaths related to COVID-19 from April 2020 to April 2021.