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Coronavirus pandemic

Evacuees from China to Russia do not have coronavirus symptoms, says watchdog

Head of the Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova said that "among those on board the planes headed to Russia are only those people who are clinically healthy as of today"

Head of the Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova Dmitry Astakhov/POOL/TASS

Head of the Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova

© Dmitry Astakhov/POOL/TASS

YEKATERINBURG, February 4. /TASS/. Among citizens of Russia, member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Ukraine evacuated from China's Wuhan, no one exhibits symptoms of the new coronavirus 2019-nCoV, head of the Russian consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova told a briefing on Tuesday.

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Two planes of the Russian Aerospace Forces have flown to China to evacuate people to Russia's Tyumen region. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova, 147 people will be evacuated to Russia from China, including 10 Belarusian citizens, three citizens of Kazakhstan, one citizen of Armenia and one Ukrainian citizen.

"I want to note that it is impossible at the moment to evacuate people with clinical signs of the virus from Wuhan. Among those on board the planes headed to Russia are only those people who are clinically healthy as of today," Popova said.

She added that among those evacuated from China to Russia's Tyumen region are several children. "There are children on board, families with children of various ages, and it is very important to create comfortable conditions for them during the flight," she noted.

Popova said that the territory of the medical center in Tyumen where people evacuated from China will stay for two weeks upon arrival to Russia, will be guarded by the Russian National Guards. "Two lines of fences have been set up at the medical center, and the area will be guarded by the Russian National Guards," she said.

On December 31, 2019, Chinese authorities informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of an unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center in central China populated by 11 million people. On January 7, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent: coronavirus 2019-nCoV.

According to latest reports, over 20,400 people were infected with the new coronavirus in China, and the death toll surpassed 420.

Cases of the new coronavirus were also confirmed in 24 other countries, including Russia. The WHO declared the new coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency.

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