MOSCOW, May 9. /TASS/. Russian medics have conducted over 5.2 million coronavirus tests, the press office of the consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor reported on Saturday.

"Over 5.2 million tests for the coronavirus have been conducted in the Russian Federation," the statement says. Over the past twenty-four hours, 234,000 tests have been made.

As many as 242,000 people are staying under medical surveillance, the consumer watchdog said.

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 4,000,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 276,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,387,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.