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Coronavirus pandemic

Number of Russians who want to return from abroad keeps growing — diplomat

According to the diplomat, 6,000 Russians were repatriated since April 5, and 100,000 Russians were repatriated in March

MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. The number of Russian abroad who opted to return home, grows every day, making it impossible to name a precise figure, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told in an online Instagram interview Wednesday.

According to the diplomat, 6,000 Russians were repatriated since April 5, and 100,000 Russians were repatriated in March. The number of Russians who want but cannot return home stays at around 30,000 people, as during the previous week.

"We do we keep returning to 30,000? Because the number of Russians [who want to return home] keeps growing," Zakharova said. "The problem [with calculation] is that their number keeps changing."

The spokeswoman brought up Italy as an example.

"We had so many flights already. But my colleagues from Rome call me again and say: ‘we have 150 people again’," the diplomat disclosed. "That’s because people that live in Italy suddenly realized that the coronavirus situation takes a bit too long. Initially, they though that they would be able to wait through the epidemic, but for some reason they could not."

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.

To date, a total of 57,999 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 4,420 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 513 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.

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