NOVO-OGARYOVO, March 24. /TASS/. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has suggested people older than 65 living in all Russian million cities be placed under quarantine in the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"Today, we see that senior citizens constitute a high-risk group. We have declared quarantine for such people. They will be obliged to stay at home from Thursday, even those who continue to work," Sobyanin, who is first deputy chairman of the Russian government’s coordination council on coronavirus response, said on Tuesday at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I think a similar measure could be recommended to the regions demonstrating high COVID dynamics," he said, adding that Moscow has already made a similar step.

He stressed that the quarantine system should be extended to St. Petersburg and all other cities with a population of over one million to avoid overload to hospitals.

Moscow's mayor also called on Russian regional authorities to get prepared for a possible outbreak, "regardless of whether they have coronavirus cases or not."

Meanwhile, the Moscow city authorities pledged they would allocate 7.6 billion rubles (96.6 million US dollars) to pay lump-sum allowances to Muscovites older than 65 who would have to stay in self-isolation over the coronavirus threat.