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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia may need one month for minimum of new coronavirus cases - chief sanitary doctor

To date, 553,301 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 304,342 patients having recovered from the disease

© Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. The lowest level of confirmed coronavirus cases could be reached in Russia within a month’s time, Anna Popova, head of the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing said in a televised interview on Russia’s Rossiya’1 channel on Wednesday.

"I would prefer the number of daily cases to equal zero. It is the indicator we are striving to, but I am hopeful that we need one more month to reach the certain, lowest level," she said.

Popova pointed out that various countries see their weekly or daily increases in new cases.

"For example, the United States has been long registering about 20,000 cases daily," she added.

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.

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