Repatriating Russians from India is most challenging — Foreign Ministry

Monitoring Desk

MOSCOW: Repatriating Russian citizens from India poses the biggest challenge, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokes-woman Maria Zakharova told the Ekho Moskvy (or Echo of Moscow) radio station on Friday.

“The situation is very tough there in terms of the epidemic and domestic tensions,” she pointed out. “Normal pace of life is changing and tensions are growing, affecting people’s attitude towards foreigners who are not part of society,” Zakharova added.

Earlier issues emerged during the repatriation process from Thailand but thanks to the assistance of Russian regional authorities, Russian nationals are now returning home from the country in large numbers, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,700,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 191,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 750,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 68,622 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 5,568 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 615 fatalities nationwide. (TASS)