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Coronavirus pandemic

Russia ranks coronavirus among dangerous diseases along with HIV and plague

This list also includes malaria, tuberculosis, Siberian plague and cholera

© Sergei Karpukhin/TASS

MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed a decree on including the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV in the list of diseases posing a threat to citizens.

Until recently, the list, compiled in 2004, included 15 diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, Siberian plague, cholera and plague.

The number of people infected with a new type of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China has exceeded 14,000, including more than 300 deaths. Over 320 patients have been discharged from hospital.

In late December, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan - a large trade and industrial center in central China home to 11 million people. The city has since been closed off for entry and exit. Foreign countries, including the US and Japan, are evacuating their citizens from Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province.

Coronavirus cases have been detected in another 23 countries, including Russia. The WHO has declared an international public health emergency over the outbreak of 2019-nCoV. According to preliminary data, a total of 341 Russians are currently staying in Wuhan. Some 130 of them are ready to leave the city, Public Relations Officer at the Russian Embassy in China Georgy Egorov said.

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