Another 40 Chinese citizens test positive for Covid-19 upon returning from Moscow via Primorye
VLADIVOSTOK. April 9 (Interfax) - Another 40 Chinese citizens have tested positive for Covid-19 upon arriving in Suifenhe in the Chinese northeastern province of Heilongjiang from Moscow via Vladivostok, bringing the total rate to 127 since March 30.
"Forty new Covid-19 cases were identified in the Heilongjiang province in the past 24 hours in Chinese citizens who returned from abroad. All of them came from Russia in the past ten days," the Russian consulate general in Harbin said on the social media.
According to the consulate, 39 persons travelled through the Pogranichny-Suifenhe checkpoint and one through the Poltavka- Dongning checkpoint.
"By now, the province has seen 127 imported coronavirus cases," the statement said.
Primorye Governor Oleg Kozhemyako said at a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with governors on Wednesday that 1,947 Chinese citizens travelled through Vladivostok between March 29 and April 6 and 85 of them were diagnosed with coronavirus in China. He said that the local population was seriously concerned about Chinese transit passengers.
The governor suggested that the Transport Ministry suspend transit of foreign citizens traveling from Moscow and other cities via Vladivostok starting on April 9. He also asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to inform the Chinese Foreign Ministry about the decision and proposed that charter flights be organized between Moscow and Beijing.