MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/. The number of patients currently ill with COVID-19 is not changing or dropping, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Tuesday.

"The number of patients with the novel coronavirus infection in acute form is not dropping yet," he noted.

At the same time, the minister underlined that the situation is more manageable in the Russian regions where restrictions are used effectively.

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.

To date, 2,906,503 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 2,319,520 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 51,912 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.