MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Five lawmakers in the lower house of Russia’s parliament have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus, State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said at a Duma session on Wednesday.

It was earlier reported that three lawmakers - Leonid Kalashnikov, Dmitry Novikov and Svetlana Maksimova had contracted the disease.

"We have five infected lawmakers," Volodin said, urging his colleagues to comply with all precaution measures. The Duma speaker specified that "as of today, three stayed at the hospital and one has been discharged from the hospital now."

"Two are on hospital beds and two are at home, considering that their test was positive but they are enduring it [the disease] in home conditions so far," he said.

"Colleagues, we are doing everything possible so that we can keep the State Duma working and that is why I draw your attention once again to the fact that much depends on us," the Duma speaker stressed.

Earlier, Head of the State Duma Committee for CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Kalashnikov (KPRF), First Deputy Head of the Committee for International Affairs Novikov (KPRF) and lawmaker from the United Russia faction Maksimova had been hospitalized with the pneumonia caused by the coronavirus.

Kalashnikov was discharged from the hospital on May 5 and now continues medical treatment at home. As an assistant to Maksimova told TASS, she now feels well and is working remotely from a separate hospital ward.

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 4,355,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 293,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,610,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 242,271 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 48,003 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 2,212 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.