MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. An elderly woman who tested positive for the coronavirus has died at the hospital in Moscow, the coronavirus monitoring center said on Thursday. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who chairs that State Council’s Coronavirus Prevention Working Group, has confirmed the city’s first coronavirus death.

"A 79-year-old woman was taken to the hospital on March 13, and transferred to a private clinic at her family’s request on March 14. After testing positive for the coronavirus, she was transferred to the Infectious Hospital Number Two," the statement reads. The deceased had a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes, arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease, coronary atherosclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, kidney stone disease and cerebrovascular disease, the center added.

Infectious Hospital Number Two Chief Medical Officer Svetlana Krasnova said that the patient had received comprehensive treatment at the intensive care unit.

"The patient’s close contacts have been identified and put under medical observation. None of them has severe symptoms of the disease," the monitoring center said.

Coronavirus situation

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in more than 140 countries, including Russia.

On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic. As of now, over 210,000 people have been infected around the world and about 8,500 have died. Russia has identified 147 cases so far. The Russian government has launched an Internet hotline to keep the country’s people informed about the coronavirus situation.

As many as 86 coronavirus cases have been identified in Moscow so far.