MOSCOW, March 15. /TASS/. Russia will suspend trains to and from Ukraine and Moldova on March 17 due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Federal Passenger Company - a Russian Railways subsidiary - said in a statement on Sunday.

"As Ukraine and Moldova have announced decisions to suspend train traffic on March 17 in order to prevent the spread the novel coronavirus infection, passenger trains and through coaches will be suspended until further notice," the statement reads.

The company added that restrictions would also apply to trains to and from Latvia. In particular, trains between Moscow and the Latvian capital of Riga would be suspended on March 15 and trains between St. Petersburg and Riga on March 16.

Russia earlier suspended trains to and from the French city of Nice and Germany’s capital of Berlin, as well as through coaches to and from the Czech capital of Prague.

Coronavirus pandemic

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in more than 120 countries, including Russia. Most cases outside of China have been recorded in South Korea, Iran and Italy.

On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic. As of now, more than 150,000 people have been infected around the world and about 5,400 have died of it. Russia has so far identified 59 coronavirus cases.