MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. Three Russian biathletes Pavel Magazeyev, Andrei Usov and Alina Stremous changed their sports citizenship and joined the national biathlon team of Moldova, Petru Bria, the secretary general of the Moldova Biathlon Federation (MBF), told TASS on Thursday.
The athletes did not need permissions for their transfer from the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) and the International Biathlon Union (IBU) since they never competed as part of the Russian senior national team.
"Pavel Magazeyev, Andrei Usov and Alina Stremous were issued [Moldovan] passports on February 15," Bria said.
"Due to the current novel coronavirus pandemic the athletes are currently practicing at home and the first training camp for them is scheduled for May 20 in Chisinau," the MBF secretary general added.
As of today, over 2,000 confirmed novel coronavirus cases are reported in Moldova with the death toll from the virus standing at 51, while over 230 patients have been reported to recover from COVID-19.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials 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. According to the latest statistics, over 2,090,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 135,200 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 520,900 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.
To date, a total of 27,938 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 2,304 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 232 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.