MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russian steel producer MMK Group (Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and subsidiaries) has banned business trips of its employees to China until further notice, a company representative told TASS.
"Pursuant to the requirements of Decree No. 2 by the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation dated January 24, 2020, the company issued an order prohibiting, until a special order, business trips of employees of MMK and organizations of the MMK Group to the territory of China," he said.
In addition to this, informational materials, special memos on hygiene for influenza, coronavirus infection and acute and respiratory infection were distributed among employees, the company representative said.
Earlier, Russian Railways, Gazprom, Alrosa, Severstal, Yandex and some other Russian companies restricted foreign business trips of their employees due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
MMK is one of the largest global steel producers. Its operations in Russia include a steel producing complex encompassing the entire production chain, from preparation of iron ore to downstream processing of rolled steel. Chairman of the board of directors Viktor Rashnikov holds a 84.26% stake in the company.
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. On January 7, 2020, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent as coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The World Health Organization recognized the pneumonia outbreak in China as an international emergency.
To date, this new strain of coronavirus has already been identified in 70 countries, including Russia. Currently, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China has exceeded 80,000 with almost 3000 deaths reported. According to WHO, outside China, the number of cases exceeded 10,500, more than 160 people died.