20 Feb 2020 09:32

No new coronavirus cases identified in Russia - Rospotrebnadzor

MOSCOW. Feb 20 (Interfax) - No new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus have been registered in Russia, where the number of cases remains at two, the Russian Federal Service for Health and Consumer Rights (Rospotrebnadzor) said on its website on Thursday.

"The diagnosis provided as a result of laboratory testing was as follows: [...] two cases of the coronavirus infection (the patients were discharged from hospital on February 12, 2020, upon recovery)," it said.

Only two cases of the new coronavirus were detected in Russia among arriving Chinese citizens, the service said earlier. Their diagnosis was confirmed by laboratory tests conducted at Rospotrebnadzor's Vector State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology. They fully recovered and were discharged from the hospital on February 12.

An outbreak of pneumonia caused by the previously unknown 2019-nCoV coronavirus began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in mid-December 2019. The disease was later called Covid-19. In late January 2020, the World Health Organization recognized the outbreak as a public health emergency of international concern.

According to the latest reports, the number of people sick with Covid-19 remains at 74,576, while the death toll is 2,118, China's National Health Commission said.

Over the past 24 hours, the number of people infected with 2019-nCov in China rose by 394, with the number of deaths growing by 114, including 108 in the Hubei province, one in the Shandong province, one in the Guangdong province, one in the Fujian province, one in the Yunnan province, one in the Shaanxi province, and one in Shanghai.

As many as 56,300 people remain in Chinese hospitals with Covid-19, including 11,860 in serious condition.

In all, 16,000 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from hospitals in China.