Medics walk in front of a hospital where patients infected with the COVID-19 novel coronavirus are being treated in the settlement of Kommunarka outside Moscow on June 17, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Tuesday that 151,000 people in Russia are currently in hospital with the coronavirus, as the country battles a third wave driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

"182,000 hospital beds are allocated, 151,000 patients are receiving treatment," Murashko said during a televised government meeting, adding that the "situation is tense, especially in large cities".