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Russia’s Transport Ministry recommends avoiding non-essential air travel to China

Starting from February 1, Russia has limited air travel with China

© Sergey Bobylev/TASS

MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The Ministry of Transport strongly recommended Russian citizens to avoid non-essential air travel to China, the ministry said on Saturday.

"If you have not yet left for China from the Russian Federation, we strongly recommend that you do not do it unless absolutely necessary. If you decide to cancel the trip, Russian airlines will refund the ticket price," the ministry said.

Starting from February 1, Russia has limited air travel with China, due to novel coronavirus outbreak - regional regular flights between the countries are closed, flights from Moscow will continue to be operated by Aeroflot, Air China, Hainan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines. At the same time, Russian airlines will be able to fly to China in a charter mode.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial metropolis in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, 2020, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent: coronavirus 2019-nCoV.

Cases of the new coronavirus were also confirmed in 23 other countries, including Russia. On January 30, the World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency.

As of midnight January 31, the total number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus reaches 11,791, including 259 deaths and 243 who had recovered and been discharged from the hospital, according to the Chinese National Health Commission.

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