UPDATE - Too Early To Open Finland's Borders With Russia - Ambassador To Moscow

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) It is too early to open Finland's borders with Russia due to the situation with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but Russians may come for humanitarian reasons, Finnish Ambassador to Russia Mikko Hautala said.

"Those people who absolutely need to cross the border can come for treatment, to study, of course, if there are humanitarian reasons, they can do all this. But for ordinary tourists, it is not yet permitted, we are monitoring the situation in Russia, carefully analyzing, and consult with our EU partners, because it is the Schengen zone, and if one country opens [borders], it affects others," Hautala said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

"Immediately when the opportunity arises, when we see that it will be possible [to open the borders with Russia], in Finland there are many people who would like to see Russian friends and tourists. But it is too early, it is difficult to say, we are following the situation," the ambassador said.

On March 27, amid the coronavirus pandemic, Russia stopped regular and charter flights with other countries. The exceptions are flights to take citizens home, as well as cargo, mail, sanitary and humanitarian flights, flights of empty planes for maintenance, transit flights with landing for refueling or changing crews in Russia and flights carried out in line with individual decisions of the Russian government.

According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Finland stands at 7,265, with 329 deaths and 6,800 recoveries.

Russia's case tally, in line with official data, surpasses 700,700, with over 10,660 deaths and more than 472,500 recoveries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus a pandemic on March 11.

According to the WHO, the global coronavirus death toll has surpassed 539,000 people, with the number of cases worldwide exceeding 11.6 million.