Russia shuts Poland, Norway borders to foreigners
The ban will come into force at midnight on Saturday and apply to all foreigners travelling 'for professional, private, study or tourist reasons'.
A woman rides an e-scooter along a bridge over the Moskva river in front of the Kremlin’s Spasskaya tower in downtown Moscow on March 13, 2020. (Photo by Yuri KADOBNOV / AFP)
Russia will close its land borders with Poland and Norway to foreigners in a bid to limit the spread of the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Saturday.
The ban will come into force at midnight on Saturday and apply to all foreigners travelling “for professional, private, study or tourist reasons”, he said.
He added that Belarusians, members of official delegations and residents of Russia would be excepted.
Russia has a short land border with Poland in the enclave of Kaliningrad and one with far north of Norway, which runs for about 200 kilometres (120 miles).
Moscow has counted around 45 cases of contamination with COVID-19, but no deaths so far, according to the latest official figures.
On Friday, Russia said it would reduce the number of flights to and from the European Union to stem the spread of the virus.
It has already closed its border with China and limited the number of arrivals from Iran and South Korea.
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