MOSCOW, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Russia has registered a new single-day record of 27,543 COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total tally to 2,215,533, the country's COVID-19 response center said Friday.

Meanwhile, 496 more fatalities were registered, down from the single-day record of 524 the previous day, raising the nationwide death toll to 38,558, said the center.

A total of 1,712,174 patients have recovered so far, including 26,682 over the past day, it said.

Confirmed cases in Moscow, Russia's worst-hit region, increased by a record of 7,918 to 585,095, it added.

Russia remains the fifth in the world and the second in Europe in terms of COVID-19 caseload.

The country aims to start voluntary mass vaccinations against the virus before the new year, which will be carried out stage by stage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.