MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. More than 90% of coronavirus patients had a concurrent infection, pneumococcus in most of the cases, academician Nikolai Briko, head of the Department of Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine at the Sechenov University and the Russian Health Ministry’s chief visiting epidemiologist, said on Friday.

"More than 90% of patients diagnosed with the coronavirus infection had a co-infection. In most of the cases, it was pneumococcus. It means that vaccination is very important," he said.

According to the expert, mortality from COVID-19 among those inoculated against flu is lower than among those non-inoculated. "If a patient has flu and the coronavirus infection or pneumococcus (and coronavirus) at the same time, the disease burden is much stronger. The mortality rates among those vaccinated are lower," he added.

According to the latest statistics, around 115.7 million people have been infected worldwide and more than 2.5 million deaths have been reported.

To date, 4,301,159 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,885,321 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 88,285 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.