MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The Altai Republic, which was the last region of Russia with no reported cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), has documented its first case of the virus on Thursday, the region’s government informed TASS.
"We have detected the first case of the novel coronavirus in the region. A female resident of the region has been confirmed to have contracted it," the source said.
The officials are currently working on establishing a list of people who may have come in contact with the infected woman.
The Altai Republic is a region in southern Siberia with a total population of 218,000 people.
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. According to the latest statistics, over 2,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 134,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 516,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 27,938 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 2,304 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 232 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.