From February 5 to February 7, 2020, the official Russian delegation led by Vyacheslav Smolenskiy, Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, has visited the People's Republic of China (PCR).
Representative delegation, which included Alexander Semenov, Deputy Director for Innovation of St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute, participated in consultations on prevention the spread of new coronavirus infection (2019-nCoV).
The Russian delegation is the first foreign delegation, received by the PRC to discuss the fight against the spread of coronavirus as has been repeatedly stressed by representatives of the Chinese side.
The meetings were held with the representatives of several ministries and organizations of the People's Republic of China during this business trip. The members of the Russian delegation spoke with the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC, headed by Vice Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic of China Le Yucheng, with the Deputy Head of the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine Yu Yanhong and specialists of this Administration; with representatives of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) led by Feng Zijian, the Deputy Director General of China CDC, also met with the group of specialists involved in fighting the coronavirus outbreak, with a group of experts from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) headed by Vice Minister of Science and Technology Huang Wei. The Russian delegation, in addition, evaluated the anti-epidemic regime in the medical center of the Embassy of the Russian Federation, as well as gave instructions for doctors of the Russian Embassy on the use of personal protective equipment.
The specialists of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) have tested two variants of the Russian PCR test kits for the detection of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). The studies have shown satisfactory specificity and sensitivity of the Russian test kits of two modifications, comparable to the China CDC reference test.