ST. PETERSBURG, March 14. /TASS/. A man, who returned from Italy to St. Petersburg on March 8, tested positive for the coronavirus becoming the sixth patient in the Russian second-largest city, the coronavirus task force told TASS on Saturday.

"The sick person was a man. He came to St. Petersburg from Italy on March 8 and was taken to hospital on March 12," the spokesperson said.

On Friday, St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov told reporters that by that day five coronavirus cases had been registered in the city. Among the patients is a ten-year-old child. All the infected people had travelled abroad. They are being treated in hospital.

St. Petersburg’s authorities banned mass gatherings of more than 1,000 people from March 16 until April 30.

In late December 2019, a pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, an economic and industrial megacity with a population of 12 million. After the coronavirus broke out of China’s Hubei province, it spread across China and then around the world affecting more than 120 countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) characterized the outbreak as a pandemic on March 11. According to the WHO data, around 140,000 cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed up to now. The virus’ death toll has surpassed 5,000. Russia handles 59 coronavirus cases so far. On Saturday, the country set up a coordinating center to contain the spread of the coronavirus.