MOSCOW, February 23. /TASS/. All safety precautions were followed on board the aircraft, which delivered eight Russian citizens from the Diamond Princess cruise ship to Kazan, press service of the Ministry of Emergencies told TASS.
"By order of the operational headquarters for the prevention and spread of coronavirus in the Russian Federation on February 23, the An-148 aircraft of the Russian Emergencies Ministry delivered 8 citizens of the Russian Federation, who were on a cruise ship in the Japanese port of Yokohama, from Tokyo to Kazan," the press service said.
"The crew and task force members wore special protective suits. Now they are resting after a long flight and will soon return home, where they will undergo the necessary medical examinations," the ministry added. In total, eight crew members and six task force employees completed the flight.
The head of Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being, Anna Popova noted earlier that colleagues in Tatarstan were highly prepared to deal with this situation. She thanked Minnikhanov and doctors who were doing their utmost to preserve the Russians’ health.
A total of 24 Russian nationals were onboard the cruise ship in Japan. The others refused to take this flight.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship left Yokohama on January 20 and returned on February 3. A coronavirus-infected Chinese citizen who left the ship on January 25 in Hong Kong was among the passengers. In accordance with the decision made by the Japanese authorities, the ship was anchored near Yokohama and quarantined for two weeks since February 5. Some 3,700 passengers and crew members from 50 countries were onboard the vessel.
The evacuation effort for the passengers who did not contract the novel coronavirus took place on February 19-21. During this period, some 1,000 people left the vessel, the site of the biggest coronavirus outbreak outside China.
A total of 634 people were infected with the novel coronavirus and two old Japanese nationals died in hospital. Some 1,200 people - the crew and those who had contacted with those infected - currently remain onboard the vessel. The Japanese authorities plan to allow them to leave the ship soon. The US, South Korea, Australia, Israel, Canada, Hong Kong and Russia evacuated their citizens on special charter flights.
On December 31, 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 center in central China populated by 12 million people. The source of the outbreak is the COVID-19 coronavirus. Cases of COVID-19 have been detected in at least 27 countries, including Russia. The WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency. Currently, the total number of people infected with the novel coronavirus exceeds 78,700 with over 2,460 reported deaths, mostly in China. Meanwhile, over 23,000 patients have recovered to date.