MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/. Russia’s diplomatic missions abroad have temporarily suspended accepting documents and issuing visas, except for individuals mentioned in the Russian government’s decree, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Russia’s diplomatic missions and consulates have temporarily suspended accepting documents and processing and issuing all categories of visas, except for visas for the above mentioned persons. Besides, the issuance of visas in the form of a digital document has been halted," the statement reads.
The diplomat stressed that "these measures are dictated by special circumstances and are solely temporary."
In order to ensure national security, protect citizens’ health and prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus the Russian government decided to temporarily ban the entry to Russia from March 18 to May 1 of foreign nationals and persons without citizenship, including those coming from Belarus and Belarusian nationals.
These restrictions won’t refer to staff of diplomatic missions and consulates of foreign states in Russia, international organizations and their missions, and other official missions of foreign states based in Russia. They do not apply to family members of these staff, drivers employed by international services, the crews of planes and sea and river vessels, the crews of international trains, members of official delegations and holders of diplomatic, service and other private visas, issued because of the death of close relatives and those who temporarily live in Russia and transit through checkpoints at airports.
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 11 million, in late December 2019. Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported in more than 160 countries and territories, including Russia, which has 93 coronavirus cases. The World Health Organization says that the novel coronavirus cases across the globe have exceeded 180,000, with more than 7,400 deaths. The WHO has officially described the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.