Moscow, Nov 27 (IANS): Russia reported 27,543 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, a record surge in the number of single-day infections since the onset of the pandemic, the country's coronavirus response centre said on Friday.

The new cases has increased the overall infection tally to 2,215,533, TASS News Agency quoted the centre as saying.

The previous record high of 25,487 daily cases was documented on Thursday.

According to the crisis centre, the relative growth increased from 1.2 per cent to 1.3 per cent.

Meanwhile, 496 new fatalities were registered, down from the single-day record of 524 the previous day, raising the nationwide death toll to 38,558, said the centre.

A total of 1,712,174 patients have recovered so far, including 26,682 over the past day, it added.

Confirmed cases in Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, increased by a record of 7,918 to 585,095.

Russia remains the fifth in the world and the second in Europe in terms of confirmed cases.

The country aims to start voluntary mass vaccinations against the virus before the new year, which will be carried out stage by stage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.