MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. Seven Chinese nationals, who arrived in Shanghai from Milan by plane with a transfer in Moscow, have contracted the novel coronavirus, the China Central Television reported on Tuesday citing the authorities in eastern China’s Zhejiang province.
On March 1, a Chinese woman who worked in Italy and flew from Milan to Shanghai via Moscow was diagnosed with the coronavirus. On February 26, she arrived in Moscow from Milan on Aeroflot’s flight SU2415 and later headed to Shanghai on flight SU206.
On March 3, six Chinese nationals who had been on that flight tested positive for the coronavirus. All of them worked for a public catering service in Bergamo, in the northern Lombardy region, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy.
Besides, on March 2 tests confirmed that a Chinese national who had arrived in Shanghai from Milan via the German city of Frankfurt am Main was infected with the coronavirus.
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 12 million, in late December. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing it as an epidemic with "multiple foci."
In China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, more than 2,900 people have died, 80,000 have been infected and another 47,200 have recovered. Besides China, major coronavirus outbreaks have been reported in Italy and South Korea. The cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in more than 70 countries, including Russia.