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MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Vietnam plans to continue providing aid to Russia in tackling the coronavirus infection spread by supplying medical masks, a source in the embassy of the republic told TASS on Saturday.
"Due to the complicated situation with the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, Vietnamese departments, agencies and organizations plan to continue supplies of medical products to the Russian people," the source said.
The country has already carried out several such deliveries for free, he noted, adding that over 5 tonnes of medical products, including 370,000 medical masks, have been supplied to the Russian side.
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. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 4.4 mln people have been infected worldwide and more than 300,000 deaths have been reported. To date, a total of 272,043 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 63,166 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 2,537 fatalities nationwide.