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Chinese nationals with suspected coronavirus to be barred from entering Russia

Double control will be exercised at the Blagoveshchensk customs point

MOSCOW, January 26. /TASS/. Chinese nationals with suspected 2019-nCoV-caused pneumonia crossing into Russia via the border checkpoints at Russia’s Far Eastern city of Blagoveshchensk will be sent back to China, the press service of the regional government said on Sunday.

"Strict control measures are being exercised at the border checkpoints in Blagoveshchensk (customs point and airport), with specialists with thermal cameras being involved. Double control will be exercised at the Blagoveshchensk customs point: specialists will first examine people in each bus arriving from China and then examination will be continued at the cross point. Chinese nationals with suspected infection will be sent back to Heihe. Russian nationals will be taken to infectious diseases hospitals," it said.

According to the press service, more than 70,000 people have been examined at quarantine points since the beginning of the year. More than 9,000 Chinese citizens have entered Russia and about 4,000 tourists have returned from Southeast Asian countries and China. Five people have been found to contract a disease after visiting China. Coronavirus infection was not confirmed in three cases. Results on the other two are not available.

The outbreak of pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV was registered in late December last year in China’s city of Wuhan with a population of 11 million. By now, the number of confirmed cases of the disease has reached 2,027 and the death toll has hit 57. The coronavirus has been registered in nearly all Chinese regions, including in Beijing and Shanghai.

Coronavirus cases have also been reported in Australia, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, Thailand, France and Japan. The World Health Organization has recognized the virus outbreak as a national emergency for China but has so far refrained from declaring it a global health emergency.

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