NEW YORK, August 17. Another plane of Russia’s Aeroflot flagship carrier took off from New York to Moscow on Sunday night bringing home 375 Russian nationals, who wished to return back from the United States amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to flight departures information from the John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The flight is expected to land at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport at 11:50 a.m. Moscow time, Monday, August 17.

The Russian Embassy in the United States announced earlier on its Facebook page that it was the 20th flight organized to bring back Russian nationals home amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. The Russian Embassy stated, "All citizens of Russia were invited to board the plane."

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said that there were ten new-born babies among the 375 passengers on the flight from New York to Moscow.

"We also carry on with the so-called ‘humanitarian list’ and keep on with providing assistance to Russians from vulnerable groups… This flight carries 46 Russians, who had pressing needs to be repatriated," Antonov stated. 

Last week, Ambassador Antonov announced, "In the course of several months’ hard work we have managed to repatriate over 6,300 of Russian nationals from the United States."

According to the Johns Hopkins University, which relies on the data of international organizations, federal and local authorities, the total number of fatalities in the United States caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic exceeded the figure of 170,000.

The United States is currently the leading country in terms of confirmed novel coronavirus cases, which exceed 5.4 million, while over 1.8 million people have been reported to recover from the virus.

COVID-19

In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed 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. According to the latest statistics, over 21,825,600 people have been infected worldwide and more than 773,060 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 14,559,630 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.