Russia closes Far East over coronavirus

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed an instruction to close the state border in the Far East as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"A corresponding instruction was signed today. Work on it is already in progress. We will inform all those concerned properly about the measures to close the border in the Far Eastern region and other steps the government has taken [to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Russia]," he said today in his opening remarks at the Cabinet’s meeting.

The emergency response team was formed in Russia to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading into the country. The new unit is chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova. 

The team also includes Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare Head Anna Popova, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Gorovoy, Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance Head Sergey Dankvert, Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev, Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, Minister of Transport Evgeny Dietrich, Government Executive Office Deputy Head Leonid Levin, Foreign Intelligence Service Deputy Director Andrey Moryakov and Aeroflot CEO Vitaly Savelyev.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in Wuhan. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent: coronavirus 2019-nCoV. Apart from China, the infection was registered in 16 other countries, including Canada, the U.S., France, Thailand, South Korea, Australia, Japan. There are no registered cases of nCoV in Russia.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan temporarily suspended the issue of visas to Chinese citizens and all transport links with China.

According to latest reports, the number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in China has reached 7,711. A total of 170 people have died.