MOSCOW, June 29. /TASS/. Some 40 Russian diplomats, including staff members of the Foreign Ministry’s regional offices, contracted the novel coronavirus and one of them died, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with RT.
According to Lavrov, among those ill were both staff of the Foreign Ministry’s headquarters and territorial branches "in the key Russian regions, where there is large foreign consular representation." "Nearly forty. The overwhelming majority had mild symptoms. One lethal case," the foreign minister said.
The diplomat who died from the coronavirus was aged 62. "His wife is a medical worker (it’s not a big secret), she worked for the ambulance service and obviously, she was just a carrier, without any symptoms," Lavrov noted.
Russia’s top diplomat said the Foreign Ministry fully observed all recommendations by the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing and Moscow’s Healthcare Department, including on remote work. Since the start of the pandemic nearly half of the Foreign Ministry’s staff began working remotely and keep doing so now. Meanwhile, Lavrov said he did not work remotely and keeps working in his cabinet.
"They are also ‘watching’ me. I don’t contact with a large number of people. They are regularly checking us — several times per week," he said. "We have all kinds of individual protection gear for visitors. But there are fewer of them and we are mainly trying to resolve issues by phone."
Lavrov also confirmed that he had not contracted COVID-19. "So far the Lord has spared me."