UPDATE - Russia confirms first coronavirus death

UPDATES WITH MORE INFORMATION

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia Thursday confirmed the first death from new coronavirus in the country.

An elderly woman who had contracted the virus died in a hospital in Moscow, according to a special emergency team established to curb the spread of the disease in Russia.

"The 79-year-old patient was hospitalized on March 13, but at the insistence of her relatives, she went to a private medical organization for treatment on March 14. After receiving a positive test result for coronavirus infection, she was immediately transferred to infectious diseases hospital," it said.

The team noted that the woman had a number of chronic diseases, which complicated the treatment.

The relatives of the deceased woman are under medical observation, they don't have heavy symptoms of COVID-19.

As of Thursday, Russia has recorded 147 cases of coronavirus infection, with five of them having recovered.

On March 18, Russia closed its borders for the foreigners and stateless people, and cancelled the air and railway traffic with dozens of countries.

The restrictive measures are effective until May 1, but can be expanded if necessary, said the Russian government.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Europe the new epicenter of coronavirus, which first emerged in Wuhan, China last December.

The virus has now spread to 164 countries and territories, the WHO data shows.

Out of nearly 219,000 confirmed cases, the death toll now exceeds 8,800, while more than 84,000 have recovered, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, is not fatal in all cases and a vast majority of patients do fully recover.