US to Send Russia 200 Ventilators as Russian CCP Virus Cases Near 300,000

The United States said on Tuesday it would this week start delivering 200 medical ventilators to Russia.
US to Send Russia 200 Ventilators as Russian CCP Virus Cases Near 300,000
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Helsinki on July 16, 2018. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times and Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images
Reuters
Updated:

MOSCOW—The United States said on Tuesday it would this week start delivering 200 medical ventilators to Russia, which has the world’s second-highest number of confirmed CCP virus cases (not counting China), commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

Russia reported 9,263 new infections on Tuesday, pushing its nationwide total to 299,941, and 115 more deaths, taking the total death toll to 2,837.

The new cases were for a fourth successive day below 10,000. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Monday Russia had halted the growth in infections and that there were other positive signs.

Mishustin, one of four government ministers to catch the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, has been discharged from a clinic and is now working normally, the Interfax news agency quoted his spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

The U.S. embassy in Moscow said Russian President Vladimir Putin had requested assistance from the United States and that U.S. President Donald Trump had offered to send 200 U.S.-made ventilators.

U.S. President Donald Trump (R) attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the G-20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump (R) attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the G-20 summit in Osaka on June 28, 2019. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

The presidents spoke by telephone on May 7.

The first batch of 50 ventilators should be ready for shipment on Wednesday, while the remaining 150 will be ready shortly after, the embassy said in a statement.

Russia sent a batch of its own ventilators to the United States in early April, but U.S. officials say they were not needed in the end.

The Russian ventilator in question, the Aventa-M, came into the spotlight last week after it was reported to have caused fires in hospitals in Moscow and St Petersburg.

That prompted Russia to suspend the use of Aventa-M ventilators produced after April 1.

By Tom Balmforth and Maria Kiselyova
Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.