MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. Animal meat potentially carrying a new type of coronavirus originating from China is not imported to Russia from any Southeast Asian states, deputy chief of the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision’s department for Moscow, the Moscow Region and the Tula Region Vladimir Menyakin told reporters on Wednesday.

"Russia does not consume the meat of such animals; there is no culture of consumption of such products like in China, especially in its southern provinces. There is no threat regarding veterinary supervision, as the meat of the animals that potentially carry the coronavirus is not imported to Russia from Southeast Asia," the official said.

It was reported earlier that specialists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology concluded that the new type of coronavirus is a 96% match with the atypical pneumonia virus, which is carried by bats.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent: coronavirus 2019-nCoV.

According to recent data, over 6,000 people have been infected with the virus, with 132 people dead. The virus continues to spread in China and other states, including Australia, Vietnam, Italy, Germany, Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the USA, Thailand, France, Sri Lanka and Japan. The WHO recognized the pneumonia outbreak in China as a national emergency but stopped short of declaring an international one.