Russian factory workers return after Putin eases coronavirus lockdown as cases surpass Britain's tally

MOSCOW (REUTERS) - Factory and construction workers in Russia were set to return to work on Tuesday (May 12) after President Vladimir Putin ordered a gradual easing of coronavirus lockdown measures despite a sharp increase in new cases of the novel virus.

Putin, in a surprise announcement on Monday, said it was time after six weeks to lift nationwide restrictions that had forced many people to work from home and businesses to temporarily close.

He made the announcement on a day when Russia overtook Italy to become the country with the fourth-highest number of cases in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University in the United States.

Russia on Tuesday (May 12) reported 10,899 new cases of the new coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total past that of Britain to 232,243. Russia's total caseload is now the third highest worldwide.

The country's coronavirus response centre said the death toll from the virus rose by 107 people to 2,116.

Although Putin gave wide leeway to Russia's regions to ease or tighten restrictions as they saw fit, he said it made sense for certain sectors of the bruised economy such as construction and heavy industry to be allowed to restart work from Tuesday.

Most Russian regions have been on lockdown since late March in a bid to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

Other countries have yet to update their own tallies, but Russia was likely later on Tuesday to move further up the league table of countries with the highest number of infections.

Russia puts its continued daily rise in cases down to widespread testing. It has carried out more than 5.8 million tests.