MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/. There are no grounds so far to think that the situation with the novel coronavirus will affect the organization of the constitutional amendment vote set to take place on April 22, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.

"So far, I see no grounds for it [for such fears — TASS], judging by the information we receive from our specialists and from the task force [against the spread of coronavirus]," he noted. "We monitor the situation every day and every hour. So it’s hard to make predictions."

In response to a question on whether the upcoming vote can be considered a mass event, Peskov recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin had characterized the vote as a "plebiscite." On Wednesday, the Russian leader agreed to hold the national vote on constitutional amendments on April 22.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Coronavirus cases have been reported in 50 countries and territories, including Russia.

According to Chinese authorities, about 78,400 people have been infected with the virus in the country. The death toll has reached 2,744, while over 32,400 patients have recovered.

WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19.