MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. The coronavirus spread coefficient in Moscow has gone down by 0.03 in the past 24 hours, reaching 0.94, which is the lowest recorded figure since the start of the pandemic, the data from the Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center released on Tuesday suggests.

This figure has stood at an average of 1.04 nationwide for the past three days.

The coefficient value remains below one in Dagestan (0.82 compared to 0.7 the day before) and the Murmansk Region (0.3 compared to 0.25 the day before). The Moscow Region has documented the spread of the virus at 1.3, St. Petersburg has reported a 1.2 coefficient, and the Nizhny Novgorod Region has reported a 1.16 indicator.

The spread coefficient is calculated using the formula provided by the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-being in its recommendations for regions on easing lockdown measures imposed due to the coronavirus spread. It should not exceed 1 for shifting to the first phase of easing restrictions in a Russian region. The coefficient shows how many people on average get the coronavirus infection from one infected person prior to their isolation, the watchdog explained.

Moscow has documented 5,392 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in the past 24 hours, with the total number of cases documented in the Russian capital hitting 121,301, the Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center informed reporters earlier on Tuesday. The daily increase in new cases in Moscow has reached 4.7% compared to 5.6% a day earlier.

To date, a total of 232,243 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 43,512 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 2,116 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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 4,269,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 287,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,534,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.