BEIJING, April 11. /TASS/. The Chinese authorities have sent a group of medical experts to Russia to fight against the spread of novel coronavirus, spokesman for Chinese Foreign Ministry Lijian Zhao said on Saturday.

"In order to help Russia overcome the oubreak of coronavirus infection, the Chinese government made a decision to send to Russia a group of medical experts to fight against the pandemic," the spokesman said. He added that medical professionals departed for Russia on April 11.

Sina news portal reported on Saturday that 10 Chinese experts flew to Russia from Harbin in Heilongjiang province.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified 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 1,600,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 95,800 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 357,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.