Four Russian regions have said they will extend a one-week workplace shutdown that took effect nationwide on October 30 in response to a surge in Covid-19 cases, as the death toll from the country's epidemic hit a record high.

Authorities in the Kursk and Bryansk regions, which border Ukraine, the Chelyabinsk region near the Ural mountains and Tomsk in Siberia said their shutdowns would be prolonged.

"The tense epidemiological situation forces us to extend the period of non-working days by another week," Tomsk governor Sergei Zhvachkin said in a statement. "One non-working week is not enough to stop the chain of infection."

Moscow authorities, meanwhile, said businesses there would reopen on Monday.

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