MOSCOW, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - The number of people infected with swine flu in Russia has risen to 156, the country's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, told Ekho Moskvy radio on Friday.

Earlier reports said 142 Russians, mostly those returning from vacations or studies abroad, had contracted swine flu.

Russia's Rospotrebnadzor consumer rights watchdog said earlier in the day, citing regional offices of the World Health Organization (WHO), that the number of people with swine flu has exceeded 220,000 globally with almost 2,000 deaths.