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Coronavirus pandemic

All Russian medical institutions must prepare for treating coronavirus patients — minister

"This indeed is a special situation," he said

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. /TASS/. All medical workers and healthcare organizations in Russia must be prepared for treating novel coronavirus patents, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said.

"There is one more thing that worries us - some medical organizations which, at present, are not engaged in the process of treating this category of patients. I visited one of them just today, <...> a clinic that offers emergency and non-emergency assistance to a certain category of patients," the minister told the Evening with Vladimir Solovyev talk show on Russia’s Channel One.

"What did I see? First and foremost, its personnel think that this disease [COVID-19] will be treated only by special hospitals, prepared for the purpose. <...> This is not so, everyone must be ready," he continued.

According to Murashko, healthcare organizations that offer emergency and non-emergency medical assistance must be ready to accept those infected with the virus.

"I’m very concerned by the state of the outpatient-polyclinic service. I would say that we have been training it practically on a daily basis, because it needs to be readjusted. This indeed is a special situation," he added.

In his words, every doctor, regardless of his or her specialty area, must stay alert and keep in mind that a patient may be infected with the novel coronavirus.

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 1,900,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 120,000 deaths have been reported.

To date, a total of 21,102 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 1,694 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 170 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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