Moscow, Jun 19 (IANS): The highly-transmissible Delta variant has been detected in 89.3 per cent of the Covid-19 patients in Moscow as the Russian capital is witnessing a surge in new infections, the city's mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

To resist the Delta variant, people need to develop as twice antibodies as required before, which has caused the herd immunity level in Moscow to drop from 60 per cent to just 25 per cent, Xinhua news agency quoted Sobyanin as saying on Friday.

Moscow, the country's worst-hit region by the pandemic, reported a record of 9,056 new cases over the past 24 hours, taking the city's total to 1,269,145, the country's monitoring and response centre said on Friday.

Starting from Friday, Moscow hospitals have started providing medical care only to those vaccinated against the virus, excluding emergency treatment.

Russia confirmed 17,262 new Covid-19 cases, the highest level since February 1, taking the nationwide tally to 5,281,309.

The death currently stood at 126,300.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday attributed the new wave of infections in Russia to a low vaccination rate, the public's reluctance to observe restrictions, and the severity of the Covid-19 variant.

Peskov said President Vladimir Putin is monitoring the pandemic situation and remains in close contact with regional leaders of the country.