BEIJING, February 5. /TASS/. The first Russian aircraft carrying humanitarian aid has arrived in China’s Wuhan, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak, SINA news website reported on Wednesday.

According to the website, five Russian medical specialists who will be working on a coronavirus vaccine together with Chinese experts arrived in Wuhan on board the plane as well.

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 economic 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 24 other countries, including Russia. On January 30, the World Health Organization declared the new coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency.

According to the latest data, the number of people infected with novel coronavirus pneumonia in China exceeded 24,300 people, 491 people died, while 892 others recovered.