Russia says ‘nyet’ to Chinese travelers

Students, tourists, and workers from China cannot visit Russia until the coronavirus outbreak subsides, government officials in Moscow announced on Tuesday. They had already halted most air and rail traffic to China and will still issue some visas for Chinese nationals with official business. So far, Russia has had three confirmed cases of the coronavirus: two Chinese citizens in Russia who were treated and released and a Russian national infected on the Diamond Princess cruise ship now quarantined in Japan.

How is the virus spreading abroad? Iran on Wednesday announced its first two confirmed cases and later said both of the patients had died. The coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has infected 70,000 people globally and killed more than 2,000, mostly in China. The number of new cases reported daily in China continues to decline, indicating the epidemic is slowing down some.

Dig deeper: Read Walter Russell Mead’s column in The Wall Street Journal criticizing the Chinese government as “the real sick man of Asia.” China expelled three Journal reporters in retaliation.