MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Russia recorded over the past day has risen by 8,764, while 9,262 people have been discharged from hospitals, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday.

For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the number of recoveries in the country over the past day has exceeded the tally of new cases.

Russia’s COVID-19 cases have surpassed 300,000, reaching 308,705. The total number of recovered patients has grown to 85,392. The growth recorded over the past day was nearly 1.5 times higher than the previous record set on May 19, when the crisis center reported 5,921 recoveries.

The daily growth rate in new cases has dropped from 3.2% to a record low of 2.9%. It has plunged below 3% for the first time since the outbreak of the new disease.

Over the past day, 903 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in Moscow, 504 in the Krasnoyarsk Region, 455 in St. Petersburg, 257 in the Nizhny Novgorod Region, 139 in the Rostov Region, 135 in the Sverdlovsk and Yaroslavl Regions, 118 in the Kaluga Region and 110 in the Bryansk Region. Some 283 people have been released from hospitals in the Moscow Region, 263 in Dagestan, 208 in St. Petersburg and Ingushetia, 179 in the Krasnodar Region and 151 in Tatarstan.

The number of patients with COVID-19 who are undergoing treatment has declined in Russia and in Moscow for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The number of the so-called active coronavirus cases in Russia has dropped from 220,974 to 220,341. In Moscow the decrease was more significant - from 116,460 on Tuesday to 113,644 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Russia has recorded 135 fatalities from the coronavirus over the past day, the biggest number recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic. The total death toll in Russia has climbed to 2,972. Some 75 people died of the coronavirus in Moscow, 14 in the Moscow Region, four in St. Petersburg, Dagestan, the Nizhny Novgorod Region, three in the Kostroma Region and North Ossetia.