MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The novel coronavirus infection rate will slow down as warm summer weather will set in, but it may start climbing again in the autumn, the chief of the clinical research department of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology under the Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Tatyana Ruzhentsova said on the Rossiya-1 federal news channel.

"It is very unlikely that the virus will leave us. There is a great probability that the rates will show a noticeable decline as the warm summer weather will set in, but in the autumn, a season of cold and wet weather, the coronavirus infection rate will climb again," she said.

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 1,800,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 114,000 deaths have been reported.

To date, a total of 18,328 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,470 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 148 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.