Russia on Wednesday surpassed the grim milestone of more than 250,000 COVID-19-related deaths after the country reported a record 1,239 fatalities.

Only the United States (757,309), Brazil (609,756), India (461,849) and Mexico (290,110) have reported more deaths than Russia from COVID-19, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.

The record number of daily deaths was reported just two days after most of the country's regions had a week-long workplace shutdown designed to contain the spread of the virus lifted.

Meanwhile, an additional 38,058 COVID-19 cases were reported across Russia, according to the government's COVID-19 task force.

Deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova was cautious in her assessment of the situation despite the number of new daily cases declining slightly since hitting a peak of 41,335 on Saturday.

"For now, we cannot say with confidence that the situation has stabilised and the infection rate is declining," deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova said during a government meeting.

So far, more than 62 million Russians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to health minister Mikhail Murashko.

About 22 million more people need to get inoculated and around nine million need to get a booster, Golikova added, in order to have 80 percent of the adult population vaccinated and thus achieve a minimum level of collective immunity.

(With input from agencies)