MOSCOW, April 8. /TASS/. Syria has addressed the Russian Health Ministry with a request for aid in order to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad told TASS on Wednesday.

"Syria has addressed the Russian Health Ministry with a request to provide coronavirus detection equipment, as well as protection suits, testing and observation equipment <…> in order to help the Syrian nation overcome the coronavirus," the ambassador said.

On Tuesday, SANA news agency informed, citing the Syrian Health Ministry, that the total number of COVID-19 cases in Syria has reached 19. Three people have recovered and two have died.

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 1,400,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 82,000 deaths have been reported. That said, over 300,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.