MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Nearly 173,000 citizens remain under medical supervision in Russia over a suspected coronavirus infection, the sanitary watchdog said on Sunday.

"A total of 173,000 people remain under medical supervision in Russia," the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing said.

Over 2.8 mln tests for the coronavirus have been carried out, including 156,000 over the past day, according to the watchdog.

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 2,700,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 191,000 deaths have been reported.

To date, nearly 75,000 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 6,250 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 681 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.