MOSCOW, March 7. /TASS/. Four new coronavirus cases have been recorded in Russia over the past 24 hours. Three of the infected individuals are in Lipetsk and one is in St. Petersburg, all of them visited Italy recently, Russia’s coronavirus task force told reporters on Saturday.
"Four new coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia over the past 24 hours among citizens of the Russian Federation, three of them in Lipetsk, of these, two without marked symptoms and one in St. Petersburg. According to an epidemiological investigation, all citizens visited Italy in the past two weeks," the task force said.
A total of 14 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia by now. Of these, two are Chinese citizens who were earlier discharged from the hospital in Tyumen, eleven others are Russian citizens who returned from Italy. In addition, one Italian citizen has been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Three Russian nationals evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan remain under medical supervision.
A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center, in late December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, describing it as an epidemic with multiple locations. Besides China, major coronavirus outbreaks have been reported in South Korea, Iran and Italy. More than 90 countries, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases.