MOSCOW, July 25. /TASS/. A slight increase in COVID-19 cases is possible in Russia this fall, but it won’t be comparable to this spring’s figures, said Vladimir Chulanov, the lead infectious diseases specialist of the Russian Health Ministry.

"It would be more correct to describe it not as the second wave, but as a possible increase during the period of seasonal surge in acute respiratory infections. New groups of people are formed in fall - groups of pupils, students, employees - and this creates favorable conditions for transmission of airborne infections, including the novel coronavirus. This may cause a certain increase in cases. But we do not expect a significant surge, like those observed before," he 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 15,666,800 people have been infected worldwide and more than 636,700 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 9,554,800 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 800,849 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 588,774 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 13,046 fatalities nationwide.