Over 500 people have died in Russia in this season's flu epidemic, a representative of the Health Ministry Oleg Salagai said, the TASS news agency reported Friday.
Salagai said that 503 people had died in Russia this year as a result of the flu, TASS reported.
The Health Ministry has declared that the flu epidemic is now over, given that, as of Feb. 26, flu cases have been recorded in only eight regions, with infection rates falling below the epidemic threshold.
In late January the Moscow branch of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's consumer rights watchdog, declared an epidemic of flu and acute respiratory viral infection in the capital, with municipal institutions placed in quarantine.
Head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova said previously that this year's virus was worse than the strain recorded in the past few years — an influenza strain previously recorded in Russia in 2009 and 2010, TASS reported.
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