- The Kremlin has started screening participants in meetings involving Russian President Vladimir Putin, checking their temperatures with thermal scanners.
- "These are just precautionary measures," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti, a Russian media outlet.
- Russia has closed its 2,600-mile land border with China and also warned it may deport foreigners who are found to have the coronavirus.
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The Kremlin is checking the temperatures of journalists and visitors who may come near Russian President Vladimir Putin amid concerns over the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus that originated in China, Russian media outlet RIA Novosti reported Thursday.
"These are just precautionary measures," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the outlet after reporters in the press pool had to have their temperatures taken before a State Council meeting. Officials conducting the screening, which involved handheld thermal scanners and lasted only about a minute, said it was in response to the coronavirus outbreak, RIA Novosti and several other Russian outlets reported Thursday.
"There is a new screening procedure in the Kremlin now," Anton Zhelnov, a Russian journalist posted on Facebook, adding that "someone holding a thermal camera will take your temperature."
Everyone scanned Thursday passed without problem.
A senior Russian official said the monitoring efforts were a response to the flu rather than the coronavirus, Interfax reported. "This is actually due to the flu epidemic, which is beginning to spread gradually across the regions," the official said.
For both the coronavirus and the flu, a fever is a key symptom. Therefore, these measures could be taken for both illnesses.
Putin takes the flu seriously. Last fall, he urged senior government officials to get flew shots, telling them that getting sick because they failed to get a flew shot is like shooting themselves in the foot.
As of Thursday, the coronavirus had killed more than 560 people and infected over 28,000 people in more than two dozen countries. Russia reported its first two confirmed cases last Friday.
Russia has closed its 2,600-mile land border with China and established a quarantine area in Siberia for Russians evacuated from Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak, The Moscow Times reports.
Furthermore, Russia has implemented some travel restrictions for foreigners coming from China and announced that foreigners who are found to have the coronavirus may be deported.