MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. Sixty eight more people, who have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus and concurrent diseases, died in Moscow in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall death toll from COVID-19 in the Russian capital to 1,358, the anti-coronavirus crisis center said in a statement on Friday.

"A total of 68 patients diagnosed with pneumonia, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus, died in Moscow," the statement reads.

According to the anti-coronavirus crisis center, the overall number of people diagnosed with the novel coronavirus in Moscow as of May 14 stood at 130,716.

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 4,511,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 302,500 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,697,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, over 252,250 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with more than 53,530 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates over 2,300 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.