Russia on Sunday recorded under 10,000 new cases for the third time this week, but fluctuating figures since the start of May suggest it is too early to detect a clear downward trend.

The country has the second-highest number of infections in the world at 281,752.

On Sunday, the Russian health authorities confirmed 9,709 new cases. Two other days this week also saw fewer than 10,000 new cases.

The country also announced 94 new deaths, slightly down from Saturday's figure of 119 that was the highest daily toll yet.

Critics have cast doubt on Russia's low official mortality rate, accusing authorities of under-reporting deaths in order to play down the scale of the crisis.

Russian health officials say one of the reasons the count is lower is that only deaths directly caused by the virus are being included.

Authorities also say that since the virus came later to Russia, the country had more time to prepare hospital beds and launch wide-scale testing to slow its spread.