Putin has been criticized for ending the "no-work period" amid record figures from Russian COVID-19

Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to end what he describes as the "no-work period" has attracted strong criticism from his political opponents.

Putin said on Monday that orders to stay at home will end this week for most workers in the country, despite a record increase in new coronavirus infections.

With more than 220,000 confirmed cases and regularly more than 10,000 new cases of coronavirus daily, Russia now ranks fourth in the world behind the United States, Spain and the United Kingdom.

Monday's figures saw Russian health officials put the total number of infections at 221,344, with around half of all cases in the capital Moscow.

Putin's critics say the reopening is fueled by financial concerns and unsupported by scientific data. They also accuse the Russian Prime Minister of having attempted to transfer responsibility to the regional authorities.

Dimitry Gudkov, leader of the Opposition Changes Party, said that Putin's actions were motivated by attempts to save money and blame.

"Putin does not want to give money, he does not want to spend money from the reserve fund. He decided to entrust all responsibility to the (local) governors, so that they maintain the bans and are responsible for the spread of the coronavirus.

"It’s as if Putin had nothing to do with it: that responsibility has been removed."

The Kremlin introduced the measures in late March, saying that Russians who do not work in essential jobs should stay at home, but continue to receive their wages as part of comprehensive measures to stop the spread of the virus.

The move has created more uncertainty in an economy that already faces low oil prices and business owners are struggling to pay full wages to employees while shutting down customers.

President Putin has said that regions of Russia, which are empowered to introduce various measures to deal with the pandemic, will be able to maintain any restrictions they deem necessary to contain the virus.