MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's daily count of new coronavirus infections surged to more than 121,000 on Sunday, an eightfold increase compared with the beginning of the month as the highly contagious omicron variant spreads through the country.

The state coronavirus task force reported 121,288 new infections over the past 24 hours — an all-time high and 8,000 more than a day earlier. The country's infection numbers have rocketed since early January, when only about 15,000 new cases per day were tallied.

The task force said 668 people died of COVID-19 in the past day, bring Russia’s total fatality count for the pandemic to 330,728, by far the largest in Europe.

Despite the surging infections, authorities have avoided imposing any major restrictions to stem the surge, saying the health system has been coping with the influx of patients.

Earlier this month, parliament indefinitely postponed introducing restrictions on the unvaccinated that would have proven unpopular among vaccine-hesitant Russians. And this week health officials cut the required isolation period for those who came in contact with COVID-19 patients from 14 days to seven without offering any explanation for the move.

Russia has had only one national lockdown, in 2020, although many Russians were ordered to stay off work for a week last October amid a jump in reported cases and deaths.

Russia’s state statistics agency, which uses broader counting criteria than the task force, puts the country’s pandemic death toll much higher, saying the number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 was over 625,000.

Just about half of Russia’s 146 million people have been fully vaccinated, even though Russia boasted about being the first country in the world to approve and roll out a domestically developed coronavirus vaccine.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Beijing officials said Sunday they had sealed off several residential communities north of the city center after two cases of COVID-19 were found.

The Chinese capital is on high-alert as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics opening Friday.

Another 34 cases were confirmed among athletes and others who have come for the Games, the organizing committee said. In all 211 people have tested positive among more than 8,000 who had arrived by the end of Saturday. They include a Swedish cross-country skier and a snowboarder from Slovenia.

Everyone coming for the Olympics is being isolated from the general public for the duration of their stay in China to try to prevent cross-infection.

Residents in the Anzhenli neighborhood in Beijing's Chaoyang district were locked down on Saturday, and will not be allowed to leave their compound.

The city is also setting up 19 points in the area to test residents every day until Friday, officials said at a briefing on the pandemic, according to state-backed Beijing News.

While the number of cases is low compared to other countries in the region, China has doubled down on its “zero-tolerance” policy, which tries to break the chain of transmission as soon as it is found.

The Chinese capital reported a total of 12 cases of COVID-19 between 4 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, said Pang Xinghuo, the vice head of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control. All those cases came from people who were already under some kind of pandemic control measures.

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NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The head of Cyprus’ Orthodox Christian Church said Sunday that he will suspend a dozen priests from his diocese because they refused to heed his call to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Archbishop Chrystostomos II told state broadcaster CyBC that most of the priests are also theologians who have swayed some of the faithful not to get vaccinated. The archbishop called the insubordination “unheard of” and warned that the suspensions could be extended to six months or lead to the priests being defrocked.

He suggested that some of the unvaccinated priests may be emboldened to defy him because of his frail health.

Archbishop Chrysostomos has been vocal in his support for vaccinations for all the faithful and the Church's highest decision making body, the Holy Synod, has issued a clear appeal in favor of vaccination.

COVID-19 infections in Cyprus have in recent weeks tapered off, but remain high. The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients also remains high, but health authorities say the system is coping.

January recorded the second-highest number of virus-related deaths per month in Cyprus since the start of the pandemic.