BANGKOK, March 18. /TASS/. At least 333 Russian nationals are currently on 12 islands of the Philippines, Tatiana Shlychkova, minister counsellor of the Russian embassy in the Philippines, said on Wednesday.

"Today, there are 333 Russian citizens on 12 Philippine islands, some of which have no airports," she said during a broadcast on the diplomatic mission’s Facebook page.

The embassy earlier asked the Russian government to send a special plane to evacuate its nationals. According to the latest information provided by the Philippines’ Department of Health, 187 novel coronavirus cases have been confirmed in the country, four of which have recovered and 12 have died.

The Philippine authorities have declared a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak from March 15 to April 14.

The current coronavirus disease was registered in central China at the end of December 2019. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. COVID-19 infection cases have been recorded in more than 160 countries. According to the latest data, over 190,000 people have contracted the virus, about 8,000 of whom have died.