MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Two Chinese nationals who were hospitalized in Russia with the novel coronavirus feel well and will be discharged from hospital soon, Anna Popova, head of Russia’s consumer rights watchdog Rospoterbnadzor said on Monday.

"As you know, two Chinese citizens were diagnosed to have an infection caused by the new coronavirus. They were taken to hospital. All disease control measures were taken. As of today, the patients feel well and are about to be discharged. As soon as we receive negative results twice, doctors will discharge them," she said.

In late December 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 metropolis in central China with a population of 11 million. The infecting agent was identified as coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak in China a global health emergency, characterizing it as an epidemic with multiple foci.

Cases of the new coronavirus have also been reported from 24 other countries, including Australia, Vietnam, India, Canada, the United States, Thailand, and Russia. By now, the number of confirmed cases of the disease in China has exceeded 40,200, with 909 people killed by this coronavirus. As many as 3,300 have recovered.