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Russia’s coronavirus cases climb to 199

Efforts are now underway to put the infected under medical observation and conduct laboratory tests, according to the disease response center

MOSCOW, March 19. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus cases in Russia rose by 52 in the past 24 hours, reaching 199, the Coronavirus Control and Prevention Center said in a statement on Thursday, adding that new cases had been identified in 23 regions.

"A total of 52 coronavirus cases were recorded in 23 Russian regions in the past 24 hours," the statement reads.

Twelve new cases have been recorded in Moscow, five in the Moscow Region, and another five in the Sverdlovsk Region. The Tula, Krasnoyarsk and Khabarovsk regions have reported three cases each. The Tambov, Voronezh, Kirov and Krasnodar regions have identified two cases each, while isolated cases have been registered in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, Murmansk, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Saratov, Tver, Perm, Sakha, Khanty-Mansiysk and Chuvash regions, as well as in the city of St. Petersburg.

The center pointed out that the patients’ contacts had been identified. Efforts are now underway to put the infected under medical observation and conduct laboratory tests.

Coronavirus pandemic

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 170 countries, including Russia.

On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic. As of now, over 220,000 people have been infected around the world and about 8,900 have died. Russia has identified 199 cases. The Russian government has launched an Internet hotline to keep the population informed about the coronavirus situation.