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Russia’s coronavirus situation remains tense, says minister

Some 263,000 hospital beds have been set up in Russia currently, and they are in high demand

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. The coronavirus situation in Russia is still tense, the number of newly confirmed cases remains steadily high, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Monday.

"I would like to note that the coronavirus situation remains tense. In the past week, the number of identified cases was at a rather high level steadily," he pointed out.

Murashko explained that 263,000 hospital beds have been set up in Russia currently, and they are in high demand. According to him, the number of hospitalizations continues to grow as around 84% of the beds are occupied in the country on average. Meanwhile, 53 regions in the country report figures close to 90%

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed 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. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

According to the latest statistics, more than 54.4 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 1,300,000 deaths have been reported. To date, 1,948,603 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,453,849 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 33,489 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.