RIGA, April 3. /TASS/. The first death of a patient who had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus has been recorded in Latvia, the Latvian television reported on Friday.
"The disease caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus has claimed the first life, an elderly female patient has died," the Latvian radio and television reported on its website.
On March 2, Latvia’s Ministry of Health reported that the first coronavirus case had been recorded. By now, 493 cases have been confirmed in the country. The Latvian government has declared a state of emergency until April 14, which provides for a number of stringent measures to curb the spread of the virus. In addition, the authorities decided to suspend all international air, rail, sea and bus passenger traffic from March 17 to April 14.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.
On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, more than 1,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 53,000 deaths have been reported. That said, over 213,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
So far, a total of 4,149 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 281 patients having recovered from the virus. The country’s latest data indicates 34 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.