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Coronavirus pandemic

Kremlin sees no grounds to introduce state of emergency over coronavirus in Russia

According to the emergency operations center, 63 coronavirus cases have been registered in Russia

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov Mikhail Metzel/TASS

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS

MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. There are no grounds for introducing a state of emergency in Russia over the spread of the novel coronavirus, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.

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Russia’s PM orders to prepare priority actions plan due to coronavirus

"There been neither ideas nor grounds for this [introducing a state of emergency - TASS] nor decisions," Peskov said.

The outbreak of a disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was registered in central China in late December 2019. The World Health Organization recognized the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic on March 11. Outside China, the worst affected countries are Italy, South Korea and Iran. Overall, more than 130 countries, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases. The WHO says that the novel coronavirus cases globally have exceeded 160,000, with more than 6,000 deaths (over 3,200 in China). According to the emergency operations center, 63 coronavirus cases have been registered in Russia.

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