MOSCOW, April 25. /TASS/. Russia has documented 5,966 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the past 24 hours, with the total number of people infected reaching 74,588, the anti-coronavirus crisis center informed reporters on Saturday.

The growth rate does not surpass 10% for the fourth day running.

"A total of 74,588 cases (+8.7%) of the novel coronavirus have been documented in 85 Russian regions. In the past 24 hours, 682 people have been discharged from hospitals on recovery, with 6,250 people recovered in total. In the past 24 hours, 66 COVID-19 patients have died. In total, 681 people have died in Russia [from the novel coronavirus]," the message informs. The crisis center added that nearly half of new COVID-19 patients (2,915 people, 48.9%) do not exhibit any symptoms.

The crisis center informed that new cases of infection had been documented in 83 Russian regions, among them Moscow (2,612 cases; 39,509 in total), the Moscow Region (605 cases, 8,494 in total), St. Petersburg (215 cases, 2,926 in total), the Murmansk Region (193 cases, 856 in total), Dagestan (157 cases, 724 in total), the Nizhny Novgorod Region (118 cases, 1,214 in total).

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.