MOSCOW, Jan 18 — Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova said today that Russia had so far recorded 1,682 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant across 42 regions, as authorities brace for a significant rise in infections.

Omicron has pushed Covid-19 case figures to record highs in parts of western Europe and the United States but the variant has been slower to hit Russia, where daily Covid cases have fallen from a peak of 41,335 registered in early November. — Reuters