Russia closes border with China in Far East over coronavirus

 Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed an instruction to close the state border in the Far East as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

"A corresponding instruction was signed today. Work on it is already in progress. We will inform all those concerned properly about the measures to close the border in the Far Eastern region and other steps the government has taken [to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Russia]," Mishustin said in his opening remarks at the Cabinet’s meeting on Thursday.

The Chinese authorities identified an outbreak of coronavirus 2019-nCoV-related pneumonia in Wuhan at the end of December 2019. By the morning of Thursday the number of those sick exceeded 7,700. No less than 170 died. The coronavirus has been exposed in Australia, Vietnam, Germany, Italy, Cambodia, Malaysia, Nepal, South Korea, Singapore, the United States, Thailand, France, Sri Lanka and Japan. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the disease as China’s national emergency and dispatched its specialists there.