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Coronavirus pandemic

Putin to address nation on coronavirus

Putin has canceled his flight to St. Petersburg

© Alexei Nikolsky/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, March 25. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will deliver his address to the Russian citizens over the coronavirus on Wednesday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The address will be broadcast on television at 3 p.m. Moscow Time.

"Today the president’s schedule was changed: he is canceling his flight to St. Petersburg to stay in Moscow. Now he is working and in the coming hours he will complete the work on the text of his address to the citizens," Peskov said.

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Coronavirus cases in Russia rise to 658 over past day

The Kremlin spokesman explained that this decision was made after an hours-long meeting on Tuesday on the epidemiological situation and a meeting with the leadership of the government, the Central Bank and the presidential administration to discuss support for citizens and national economy amid "the challenging global economic situation caused by the coronavirus outbreak."

"Now the president is completing the work on the address, it will be broadcast on television in the coming hours," Peskov noted.

Earlier, Putin was scheduled to pay a working visit to the Northwestern Federal District. "Tomorrow we are still planning to go to St. Petersburg, the program for tomorrow will be fulfilled there," Peskov said.

Putin is planning to take part in the G20 leaders’ video conference on the coronavirus on Thursday, Peskov told reporters. The event will be held at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, which is presiding over the G20.

The number of the novel coronavirus cases in Russia has grown by 163 over the past day to 658, with 55 regions hit by the disease, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova said earlier on Wednesday. A total of 29 people have recovered.

The coronavirus outbreak was recorded in central China in late December 2019. More than 160 countries have been hit by this infection, which was labeled as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. According to the latest data, over 410,000 people have contracted the virus and more than 18,000 have died.

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