Moscow authorities are rounding up stray animals and exterminating rats as a precaution against the new coronavirus, actions that animal rights campaigners decried as cruel and scientifically groundless.
Russia has imposed an array of measures to stop the virus gaining a foothold in
Russia, ranging from restrictions on flights to
China and
South Korea to visa curbs for Iranian and Chinese citizens.
"We are currently carrying out a large-scale complex (of measures) for the total deratization of the city, catching wild animals, strays," Elena Andreeva, the
Moscow head of the Rospotrepnadzor consumer health watchdog, was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency.