MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Russia produces about 8-10 polymerase chain reaction test systems for COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, a month, head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing Anna Popova said on Wednesday during a session of heads of services of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states responsible for sanitary-epidemiological welfare.
"Our current production capacity is 8-10 mln polymerase chain reaction test systems for COVID-19 a month," she said. Popova noted that Russia had delivered over 500,000 COVID-19 test systems to other countries since February, adding that the aid will continue. "As soon as we got the opportunity to produce and hold tests, we <…> began to help our colleagues. <…> Starting February 1 and until today, Russia has delivered over half a million test systems to 30 countries in the world, including SCO states, CIS states, African, European, Latin American and South East Asian states, and we will continue this work," she said.
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 8,266,480 people have been infected worldwide and more than 446,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 4,323,350 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, 553,301 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 304,342 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 7,478 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.