Russia does not have coronavirus occurrences - Popova
MOSCOW. June 30 (Interfax) - Russia has not recorded a single occurrence of the dangerous coronavirus, Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) head, chief Russian public health official Anna Popova has said.
"As of today, we have seen no cases of coronavirus importation in the Russian territory," she said at a BRICS civil forum in Moscow on Tuesday.
According to Popova, Rospotrebnadzor is taking measures to prevent coronavirus importation, and sanitary screening is being done at airports.
"Russian airports are equipped with thermal imagers. Every flight arriving from endemic countries and territories is screened," Popova said.
Official statistics says that the coronavirus has killed 33 people in South Korea.
Rospotrebnadzor reported in early June over 1,200 occurrences of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 25 countries since 2012, including 492 lethal. Most cases were reported from the Middle East (85% in Saudi Arabia, as well as in Oman, Qatar, Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen). The United States, Austria, Germany, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom are countries with individual travel-associated MERS cases.
The Rospotrebnadzor head told Interfax earlier that whenever necessary Russia put under medical surveillance passengers arriving from South Korea and other countries where MERS cases had occurred.
Popova said they put emphasis on Russian citizens manifesting symptoms of respiratory illness upon their return from South Korea and those who were treated at South Korean hospitals.
"We recommend not putting one's health at risk by traveling to countries with coronavirus occurrences. Yet there are no grounds to ban transborder travel at present," Popova told Interfax last Monday.
In her words, the risk of coronavirus importation in Russia remains. "The risk of importation exists in any case of infection. There is no reason to panic," she said.
