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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia's Aeroflot to close flights to Vietnam, Thailand, Cuba until end of April

Since March 20, Russia has also introduced restrictions on flights to the US, the UAE, and the UK

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Aeroflot Airlines will close flights to Vietnam (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), Thailand (Phuket), and Cuba (Havana) from the end of March 2020, follows from a message on the company's website.

Flights to these destinations will be closed until the end of April.

Read also

Aeroflot suspends flights to 7 more countries over coronavirus

Since March 20, Russia has introduced restrictions on flights to the United Sates, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom amid the coronavirus pandemic. The order was signed by the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on March 18. Russian airlines will only be able to fly from Sheremetyevo Terminal F to New York, Dubai, and London.

Flights to all European countries were also limited. Planes can leave only from terminal F to the capital of a European country. Using the same principle, Russia has limited air connection with China, Iran, South Korea, Uzbekistan, and other countries. Aeroflot independently closed flights to some European capitals, mainly the countries where an emergency regime was introduced and entry for foreigners was closed.

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, flights to China and South Korea were limited first, according to the decision of the operational headquarters, only Aeroflot was allowed to fly from Sheremetyevo’s terminal F, now any carrier can depart from Sheremetyevo, there is no official ban for such flights. However, at the moment, only Ural Airlines used this opportunity - they operate flights from Sheremetyevo to Barcelona.

As a result, the passenger turnover in Sheremetyevo decreased. The airport announced plans to close international terminals E and C from March 20, flights will be transferred to terminals D and F.

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 150 countries, including Russia.

On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic. As of now, about 350,000 people have been infected around the world and about 16,000 have died. Russia has identified 438 cases so far, 17 patients have recovered. The Russian government has launched an Internet hotline to keep the country’s people informed about the coronavirus situation.

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