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Nornickel to pour $2.5 million into battling coronavirus pandemic

Norilsk’s city administration told TASS that the company had been supplying medical equipment to the city

KRASNOYARSK, March 26. /TASS/. The Norilsk Nickel Company (Nornickel) will invest 200 million rubles ($2.5 million) in additional equipment to treat patients, infected with the coronavirus, at medical centers in cities where the company operates, the corporate giant told TASS Wednesday.

"Nornickel <…> will allocate 200 million rubles to buy medical equipment for the cities of the company’s presence, and from this amount more than 84 million rubles ($1.1 million) will be allocated for Norilsk and Dudinka [Krasnoyarsk Region’s north]," the company said, adding that 3,000 coronavirus test systems would be delivered to Norilsk.

Norilsk’s municipal administration told TASS that the company had been supplying medical equipment to the city. "Nornickel offers substantial financial and organizational support in buying additional medical equipment and special protection masks for hospital personnel," the city administration’s press service quoted Mayor Rinat Akhmetchin as saying.

In late December 2019, the novel coronavirus was reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan, an economic and industrial metropolis containing a population of 11 million. The novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — broke out in China’s Hubei province initially engulfing China and then the entire world, that is more than 196 countries to be exact. The World Health Organization (WHO) labelled the outbreak as a pandemic. According to the latest reports, over 457,000 cases have been confirmed. The virus’ death toll has surged beyond 21,000. Russia reports 840 infected patients, 38 of whom have recovered and were discharged, while two have died.