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Venezuela receives novel coronavirus test kits from Russia

"Today we received special humanitarian assistance through an air bridge that we had established with Russia," President Nicolas Maduro said

MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. A batch of humanitarian aid from Russia, which includes novel coronavirus test kits, has arrived to Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro said.

"Today we received special humanitarian assistance through an air bridge that we had established with Russia," he said in a Venezolana de Television broadcast.

Venezuela’s Information and Communications Minister Jorge Rodriguez said Russia had sent 10,000 novel coronavirus test kits.

The Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare said on March 21 it had already delivered over 100,000 COVID-19 test kits to 13 states and planned to send them to Egypt, Serbia and Venezuela.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in more than 150 countries, including Russia. On March 11, the WHO declared the outbreak a global pandemic. As of now, over 350,000 people have been infected around the world and about 16,000 have died.