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Coronavirus pandemic

Russian Emergencies Ministry to deliver sanitary watchdog’s mobile lab to South Africa

The Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Il-76 aircraft will deliver a Rospotrebnadzor mobile laboratory to South Africa, as well as virologists, infectious disease experts and doctors from Rospotrebnadzor and the Russian Health Ministry, and the Emergencies Ministry’s task force

MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The Russian Emergencies Ministry will deliver the national sanitary watchdog Rospotrebnadzor’s mobile laboratory, as well as infectious disease experts and doctors, to South Africa, the ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"Under Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order, the Russian Emergencies Ministry’s Il-76 aircraft will deliver a Rospotrebnadzor mobile laboratory created on the basis of a KamAZ vehicle to South Africa, as well as virologists, infectious disease experts and doctors from Rospotrebnadzor and the Russian Health Ministry, and the Emergencies Ministry’s task force," the statement reads.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier invited researchers from Brazil, India, China and Russia to study the coronavirus and its mutations together with South African experts. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his South African counterpart agreed in their phone call on Thursday that Russian medical experts, researchers and medical equipment would be sent to South Africa. The Russian health minister’s aide Alexei Kuznetsov told TASS later that a group of experts from the ministry and the sanitary watchdog were getting ready to depart for South Africa.

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