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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Four Russian regions said on Wednesday they would extend a one-week workplace shutdown that took effect nationwide on Oct. 30 in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases, as the death toll from the country s epidemic hit a record high. President Vladimir Putin ordered the shutdown last month, giving regional authorities the option of extending it. 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. Russia s daily COVID-19 death toll rose to a record 1,189 on Wednesday as the government coronavirus task force also reported 40,443 new infections in the last 24 hours. Moscow authorities, meanwhile, said businesses there would reop ....