Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Saturday ordered to suspend border crossing by car and by rail starting from 30 March.
“The Russian Transport Ministry, together with the Russian Federal Security Service, the Russian Federal Customs Service and Rospotrebnadzor [the consumer rights protection watchdog], should temporarily restrict traffic through the automobile, railway, pedestrian, river and mixed checkpoints across the Russian state border, as well as through the Russian-Belarusian land section of the state border from 00:00 Moscow time on March 30 [21:00 GMT March 29],” the government said.
The order comes a day after Russia's consumer rights protection watchdog stated that it had not witnessed explosive growth of the country’s COVID-19 incidence rate. The statement came in line with the opinion of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) representative in Russia Melita Vujnovic, who praised Moscow's efforts to contain the spread of the virus.
As of Saturday, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide had surpassed 600,000, with the US topping the list at more than 100,000 confirmed cases. Italy currently still holds the top spot in terms of fatalities, with 9,000 lethal cases.
The total tally of COVID-19 patients in Russia stands at 1,264 in 62 regions, with four fatal cases.
