TBILISI, September 8. /TASS/. The national rugby teams of Russia and Georgia are scheduled to play their Round 5 match of the 2020 Rugby Europe Championships in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on November 1, the press office of the Georgian Rugby Union announced on Tuesday.

"According to a decision made by Rugby Europe, the Round 5 match of the Rugby Europe Championship between the national teams of Georgia and Russia will be played in Tbilisi on November 1 without spectators in attendance," the press service stated.

"The stadium hosting the match and the kick-off time will be announced later," the Georgian Rugby Union’s press service added.

The match between the national rugby teams of Georgia and Russia was initially scheduled for March 14, but was postponed indefinitely as a preventive measure against the global spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Georgian rugby team was announced the winner of the European championship ahead of schedule after winning 19 points following four rounds of the tournament. It is currently followed by the teams of Portugal and Spain (nine points each), Russia (eight points), Belgium (seven points) and Romania (five points).

Georgia is currently 148th among other countries in terms of confirmed novel coronavirus cases, which exceed the figure of 1,720. The COVID-19 death toll in the country stands at 19. More than 1,320 patients 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 27,500,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 896,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 19,594,700 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, 1,035,789 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 850,049 patients having recovered from the disease. Russia’s latest data indicates 17,993 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.