The Russians are not afraid of coronavirus

Alexander Yudin, assistant coach of Khabarovsk-based "Amur," ice hockey club, is unhappy with the decision of the clubs and the Continental Hockey League (CHL) to conduct the  remaining matces of the playoff series in empty arenas because of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Yudin, the disease, which caused global panic, was described in school textbooks 20 years ago.

"Let the whole world fear this virus! We had this before, about 20 years ago. Let's not follow the path of Europe. This is not a new virus, it was described at school books many years ago. Let them take their businesses from each other in Europe, but in here, in Russia, everything should be different," Alexander Yudin said.

"The Russian people are not afraid of anything, we don't have to live like the Europeans or the Asians do. We should to live the way we do, we have our own mindset. Yet, I have the feeling that it is America that dictates all this. There are few real Russians in our government," Yudin added.

The North American National Hockey League (NHL), following the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Major League Soccer (MLS) announced the suspension of the championship due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Continental Hockey League (CHL) Championship continues. The Moscow Mayor issued a special decree that prohibits mass events in the city with the participation of 5,000 and more people  because of the spread of the coronavirus infection. Moscow hockey clubs play in empty arenas.

45 cases of coronavirus infection reported in Russia so far

Meanwhile, the total number of positive cases of coronavirus infection in Russia has increased from 34 to 45 people over the past 24 hours, representatives of headquarters for the prevention and the spread of the new coronavirus infection told reporters on March 13.

"To date, 45 cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in the Russian Federation, of which 42 are Russian citizens, two are Chinese citizens, and one is Italian," officials said.

As it was said, eleven new patients have visited one of the affected countries over the past two weeks - Italy, France, Austria. One of the new infected people contracted the infection from another individual, who already had the coronavirus infection.

"Over the past 24 hours, eleven cases of coronavirus infection have been registered in Russia: five in Moscow, one in the Moscow region, three in St. Petersburg, one in the Leningrad region, one in the Perm region," officials said.

According to St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov, there is one child among the newly infected individuals in the city.

"We have five people who are sick. They are all in satisfactory condition. One of them is a ten-year-old child. They all came from other countries, asked for medical help and were hospitalized in the Botkin Hospital," he said.

The outbreak caused by the new coronavirus infection was recorded in late December 2019 in central China. On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized it as a pandemic. Cases of infection have been recorded in more than 110 countries. In total, according to the WHO, over 132,000 people are infected, almost 5,000 died.