MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Russia’s consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor is carrying out tighter double checks of all those arriving from unsafe regions on all Russian borders following the identification of a new coronavirus in China.
"All checkpoints on Russia’s state border have been making tighter double checks of all those arriving from unsafe regions. Stationary and portable thermal imaging equipment is used," the watchdog’s news release runs.
All those arriving from China who are diagnosed with ARI (acute respiratory infection) in the process of checks or during 14 days after the arrival are isolated, taken to the hospital and undergo thorough laboratory tests.
"The monitoring campaign has identified one patient with influenza B and adenovirus infection, one patient with parainfluenza, one patient with rhinovirus infection, three patients with influenza A, two with respiratory-syncytial infection and one with bacterial pneumonia. No patients have been diagnosed with coronavirus," the watchdog said.
China’s authorities on December 31 informed the World Health Organization of an outbreak of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan - a large industrial center with a population of more than 11 million. On January 7, Chinese specialists identified the virus to blame - 2019-nCoV.
According to the latest statistics, there have been 877 confirmed cases in China. The disease has claimed 26 lives. The new type of coronavirus has been identified in Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, the United States and Japan. On January 23, the World Health Organization refrained from declaring an international emergency in the light of the pneumonia outbreak in China.