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Coronavirus pandemic

S7 airline extends flight ban to China until April 26 amid coronavirus spread

The air carrier initially suspended air service to China from February 4 until March 28 amidst the novel coronavirus outbreak

© Mikhail Japaridze/TASS

MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. S7 Airlines extended the suspension of flights to China and Hong Kong for another month — until April 26, 2020, the carrier said.

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Due to an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the company announced on February 3 that it had completely stopped flights in this direction from February 4 to March 28.

"S7 Airlines from February 4 to April 26, 2020 completely stops flights to the cities of China and Hong Kong (China)," the carrier said.

Airline passengers are offered the choice of either receiving a refund of the full price of the ticket, or exchanging them for flights departing from Beijing, Urumqi, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hong Kong for flights departing from Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Phuket, Kamrani, subject to availability.

S7 makes also offers a possibility to its passengers to change tickets for Aeroflot flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong airports to a destination with a transfer in Moscow with available seats.

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. On January 7, 2020, Chinese experts identified the infecting agent as coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The World Health Organization recognized the pneumonia outbreak in China as an international emergency.

To date, this new strain of coronavirus has already been identified in 70 countries, including Russia. Currently, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China has remained at 80,000 with more than 3000 deaths reported. According to WHO, outside China, the number of cases exceeded 12,700, more than 210 people died.

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