MOSCOW, April 3. /TASS/. The COVID-19 situation in Russia develops in accordance with a rather favorable scenario so far, Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko told reporters on Friday.

"We see that the measures introduced in the country have affected the amount of new cases and the severity of the patients’ condition. Essentially, the curve that can develop in various ways currently develops in accordance with a rather favorable scenario," he said.

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.

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.