Hindustan Times : Apr 12, 2020, 11:00 PM
Moscow: More than half of the coronavirus infections reported by China on Sunday stemmed from a Russian flight to Shanghai the day before, underscoring the possible severity of the outbreak in Russia.Shanghai’s Municipal Health Commission said 51 of 52 imported cases on Saturday were of Chinese nationals who were diagnosed to have Covid-19 after they landed in the city. The travellers accounted for more than half of 97 imported infections China disclosed on Sunday morning. No other information was provided about the flight.Russia has emerged as a fresh source of imported virus infections for China, which seems to have tamed its own outbreak and has now pivoted toward staving off cases from elsewhere. China has grounded all but one inbound flight per week for foreign airlines in a bid to limit imported cases, but new infections have also found their way back to the country through land borders, especially the one with Russia.China’s northeastern Heilongjiang province has reported more than 100 imported infections from Russia at its land borders so far this month. Russia is tightening a lockdown of its capital amid a worsening spread of the virus that is straining local health systems.Russia on Sunday reported the number of new coronavirus cases in the country increased by 31% overnight to 2,186. That took the total to 15,770. Twenty-four deaths related to Covid-19 were reported, double the count in the previous period and bringing the nation’s total to 130.