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Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus spread coefficient goes down to 0.98 in Russia and 0.83 in Moscow

The coefficient shows how many people on average get the coronavirus from one infected person prior to their isolation, according to the watchdog

© Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

MOSCOW, June 5. /TASS/. The coronavirus spread coefficient has gone down to 0.98 in Russia and to 0.83 in Moscow on Friday, the data from the Russian anti-coronavirus crisis center released on Friday suggests.

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Russia’s coronavirus cases near 450,000

Out of ten Russian regions with the highest number of the infected, this figure equals one or is lower than one in four regions: Moscow, Dagestan (0.95), the Tula Region (0.99) and the Kaluga Region (0.98). In total, over 40 Russian regions have reported a coefficient below one.

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. The coefficient shows how many people on average get the coronavirus from one infected person prior to their isolation, the watchdog explained.

According to the recommendations, Russian regions where this figure equals or is below 1 can begin the first stage of lifting the restrictions if they have enough hospital beds reserved for coronavirus patients and conduct enough tests for the virus. If the coefficient is lower than 0.8, Russian regions can move on to the second stage of lifting the restrictions, if it is lower than 0.5, they can begin the third stage.

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 6,714,300 people have been infected worldwide and more than 393,400 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 3,261,200 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 449,834 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 212,680 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 5,528 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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