The surge may reflect the increase in testing in Moscow, the part of Russia mostly affected by the epidemic. A total of 5,358 new cases were reported in the Russian capital on Saturday compared to 3,561 on Friday.

Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Saturday the city has “radically improved” the screening protocols over the week, putting Moscow among world leaders in this regard.

“Since April 30 we have doubled the capacity of referral centers that double check earlier tests, which allowed us to analyze and confirm the backlogged results from previous days,” the mayor wrote in his blog. “We also increased the volume of antibodies express testing by 10 times over the past week”.

Russian officials say there is no reason to believe the tide of the epidemic is anywhere close to been turned however and call on the public to follow social distancing rules. But better testing helps with quarantine measures and allows swiffer medical intervention in more serious cases.

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