MOSCOW, April 4. /TASS/. As many as 235 children have contracted the novel coronavirus in Russia, but none of them is seriously ill, Russian chief sanitary doctor, Anna Popova told reporters on Saturday.
"To date, 235 cases have been confirmed in the Russian Federation. Of those, 17 suffer from pneumonia. Luckily, there are no ‘critically ill’ children among them, but we register that 41 minors have developed mild and moderate symptoms of the acute respiratory viral disease," Popova said.
She pointed out that "all the measures are aimed at [social] distancing and suspending the operation of schools and nurseries and so on" to protect children and the middle-aged.
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 4,731 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 333 patients having recovered from the virus. Moscow handles the bulk of the cases (3,357). The country’s latest data indicates 43 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.