MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Trains connecting Moscow and the southern French city of Nice will be suspended from March 5 amid the spread of the novel coronavirus. The trains run through Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Monaco.
Earlier, Russian Railways reported that the passengers could return the tickets that they wouldn’t be able to use without additional charges.
The train connecting Moscow and Nice is traveling once a week, departing from Moscow on Thursdays, and heading back on Sundays. In Italy, which reports the biggest in Europe number of coronavirus cases, the train stops apart from other cities in Verona, Milan and Genoa located in the norther part of the country that was the epicenter.
According to updated reports, Italy has reported 2,706 confirmed coronavirus cases with 107 deaths. The cases have been reported in almost all regions with Lombardy and Veneto being the epicenters. The cities of the ‘red zone’ were quarantined.
Meanwhile, the train service on other European routes has not been suspended. Trains continue connecting Moscow with Berlin (via Belarus and Poland), Paris (crossing Belarus, Poland and Germany) and Prague (across Belarus and Poland).
Early in February, Moscow-Beijing, Chita-Manchuria (China) and Moscow-Tumangang (North Korea) trains were suspended as part of measures against the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has reported 2,223 new coronavirus cases globally over the past 24 hours, with China accounting for 120 of them, the updated coronavirus situation report says.
According to the WHO, 93,090 coronavirus cases have been confirmed globally, including 80,422 in China and 12,668 in other countries. Overall, 2,984 people have died in China (38 in the last 24 hours) and 214 people have died in other countries (48 new deaths in the last 24 hours).
On December 31, 2019, Chinese health officials reported a cluster of cases of acute respiratory illness to the World Health Organization in Wuhan, an economic and industrial metropolis with a population of 11 million. The virus - now named COVID-19 (2019-nCoV), otherwise known as the novel coronavirus - was identified on January 7, 2020. Apart from China, over 70 other countries, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases. South Korea, Iran and Italy are the hardest hit outside China, where most of the coronavirus cases are reported.