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All regions in Russian Far East impose lockdown over coronavirus

The authorities in the easternmost Chukotka Region were the last to impose the lockdown
Medical workers in Vladivostok Yuri Smityuk/TASS
Medical workers in Vladivostok
© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. The authorities of all the regions in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District have passed decisions on imposing mandatory self-isolation at home for local residents to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The authorities in the easternmost Chukotka Region were the last to impose the lockdown.

"For the purposes of preventing an emergency situation in the Chukotka Autonomous Region and in the wake of the threat of the novel coronavirus infection’s spread on its territory, citizens should not leave the places of their residence (stay), except for some cases," the press office of the region’s government announced.

"They include urgent medical assistance, the cases of a direct threat to the life and health, the need to get to the place of work for people who by virtue of their professional activity or the posts they hold cannot but go to work," the press office said.

Earlier, the authorities in the Primorye, Kamchatka, Magadan and Sakhalin regions and also the Republic of Buryatia imposed mandatory self-isolation for all citizens. The authorities in the Amur Region ordered all people aged above 65 and all those who arrive from other regions to stay at home. In the Khabarovsk and Trans-Baikal regions, citizens from the coronavirus risk groups, non-working individuals and people aged above 60 and 65, correspondingly, should stay at home. In Yakutia, the lockdown was imposed for all residents in four municipalities while the mandatory self-isolation at home was introduced in one district of the Jewish Autonomous Region where three infected persons had been identified.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, more than 938,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 47,000 deaths have been reported. That said, over 195,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

So far, a total of 3,548 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 235 patients having recovered from the virus. The country’s latest data indicates 30 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.