The blow to the tourism and education sector in Russia can be huge, but the Russian government has decided on Tuesday to suspend the entry of Chinese citizens into the country, due to the coronavirus. The decision affects business trips, studies, tourism and work. ” That is, basically all those who do not have a special or diplomatic character. Russia had already closed land borders with China in an attempt to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, which has claimed the lives of 1,770 people in the neighboring country. The veto takes effect next Thursday, February 20 and will not affect travelers in transit. It is the first country in the world to take this measure.
The Russian Executive has argued the measure "due to the deterioration of the epidemiological situation in China and the continuous arrival of citizens" from that country to Russia, as explained by Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, in charge of the special device to study and curb the coronavirus.
The figures published by the National Health Commission of China point to a cautious optimism about the evolution of the epidemic. For the first time, on Tuesday, the new cases dropped from two thousand. The infections outside the province of Hubei, the focus of the disease, have been less every day for two weeks.
A calculation from The New York Times finds that, among the 1.4 billion inhabitants of China, at least 750 million suffer some kind of restriction on their freedom of movement. Of these, 150 million have limited the frequency with which they can leave their home.