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Coronavirus pandemic

Over 47,000 Russians repatriated amid coronavirus pandemic, says diplomat

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that a large number of transit flights were carried out in the past week

MOSCOW, July 2./TASS/. Over 47,000 Russian nationals have been repatriated since repatriation flights were launched at the end of March amid the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday.

"Overall, the number of repatriated compatriots has already exceeded 47,000 people since this algorithm was launched. Of them, more than 38,000 were repatriated by flights of Russian carriers, while others - by foreign carriers and charter flights, of course with the support of our embassies," Zakharova said.

According to the diplomat, another multi-phase flight operated by Azur carrier to Latin America was in progress currently. "In the next few hours, we are expecting a repatriation flight to arrive in the capital city of Ecuador, Quito, where it will take on board about 70 citizens, including those who arrived there from Bolivia. Then it will fly to San Jose (Costa Rica), where our fellow countrymen, who stayed in countries of Central America as well as those arriving there on a separate flight from Columbia, have been looking forward to it for a while," she added.

"Tomorrow we expect the plane to touch down in Moscow," Zakharova said.

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She noted that a large number of transit flights were carried out in the past week. "Russian citizens staying in different parts of the globe got an opportunity to get back home on repatriation flights from Paris, London, Barcelona, Rome and Athens. This geography keeps expanding. Russian nationals from countries of the Middle East have already been added to this scheme, it is also actively used in countries of Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, including Australia and New Zealand," the diplomat said.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Russia was scaling down international flights from February 1, while on March 27 all flights abroad were stopped with the exception of repatriation, cargo and post flights.

According to the latest statistics, over 10,820,000 people have been infected with coronavirus worldwide and more than 519,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 6,000,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

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