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Coronavirus pandemic

BRICS countries in contact on fight against coronavirus, says Russian Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. BRICS counties (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) keep discussing ways to combat the coronavirus pandemic, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said during an online launch of the Moscow-based Higher School of Economics’ report on Russia’s foreign policy, hosted by TASS.

"Our organization keeps an eye on the fight against COVID-19. Russia considers various aspects of the issue during its chairmanship. Health experts maintain contacts and will continue to do that. We also consider various political aspects of the situation within BRICS," he pointed out.

The senior Russian diplomat added that BRICS was an appropriate platform for such cooperation, "given the scientific capabilities of its members, particularly in the fields of healthcare and pharmaceutical industry." "Each of the countries is making its own contribution to these efforts. We will bring it all together during our chairmanship so that at the end of the year we can say that BRICS has made another step forward," Ryabkov emphasized.

Coronavirus pandemic

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 2,500,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 177,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 696,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

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