MOSCOW, March 3. /TASS/. The condition of the Russian national who contracted the novel coronavirus on returning from Italy is satisfactory, Russian Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko informed reporters on Tuesday, adding that the people he came into contact with are under medical supervision.
"This patient is in a satisfactory condition; all detected people that he had come into contact with are being monitored. Everything is calm. There are no new confirmed cases," he said.
Earlier, Russia’s coronavirus control and monitoring task force informed that a Russian national who had recently returned from Italy had been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. The task force informed that the man had contracted coronavirus on February 21 during a trip to Italy. He came back to Russia on February 23, and on February 27, he went to a doctor’s office complaining of acute respiratory viral infection symptoms, after which he was taken to hospital. Lab tests show that he has tested positive for coronavirus.
In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. According to Chinese authorities, over 80,000 people have been infected with the virus in the country. The death toll has surpassed 2,900, while about 47,200 patients have recovered. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19. Cases of coronavirus have been reported in over 70 countries, including Russia. The largest outbreaks of COVID-19 outside of China have been detected in South Korea and Italy.
According to WHO, the number of people infected with COVID-19 outside of China is nearing 9,000, with over 120 people dead.