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Resumption of air travel to speed up return of stranded Russians, ministry says

So far, flights will be cleared to fly to the United Kingdom, Turkey and Tanzania

MOSCOW, July 24. /TASS/. The resumption of Russia’s international air travel with a number of countries on August 1 will accelerate the process of return of Russian citizens who got stuck overseas because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Russian foreign ministry’s consular department said in a statement published Friday on its Facebook page.

"This decision makes it possible to speed up the return of Russian citizens from abroad," the department noted.

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Russia to resume international flights starting August 1

On Friday, the Russian government decided to resume the international air travel starting with August 1 that was suspended on March 27 due to the coronavirus pandemic. So far, flights will be cleared to fly to the United Kingdom, Turkey and Tanzania.

Since early April, Russia has enacted a mechanism of repatriation for Russian citizens stranded overseas due to the pandemic. More than 60,000 people availed themselves of it.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 15,666,800 people have been infected worldwide and more than 636,700 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 9,554,800 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 800,849 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 588,774 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 13,046 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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