MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. All organized tourists will return to Russia within a week, the press service of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism told reporters. In the week from March 17 to March 23, 2020, the number of Russian organized tourists abroad went down from 100,000 to 57,800, the agency noted.

"By March 31, practically all organized tourists will have returned to the territory of the Russian Federation," the press service quotes the agency’s head Zarina Doguzova as saying.

The majority of Russian tourists are returning from Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Turkey. Over half of the tourists are returning to Russia as planned, in accordance with the purchased tours. The remaining half has been offered earlier departure dates.

"As for independent tourists who face difficulties when returning home, we are looking for solutions to such difficult situations as is the case with Morocco and the Philippines," Doguzova said.

She added that the tourism industry is making an active contribution to fighting the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country, suspending all tours abroad.

A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 12 million, in late December 2019. Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported in more than 150 countries and territories, among them Russia, which by now has documented 438 cases. According to recent data, novel coronavirus cases across the globe have exceeded 350,000, with about 16,000 deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially described the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic.