More than 70 servicemen who helped to tackle coronavirus in Italy return to Russia

Il-76 planes belonging to the Russian Aerospace Forces have brought home more than 70 Russian servicemen who helped to tackle the novel coronavirus outbreak in Italy, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday. “Starting from May 8, more than 70 servicemen and 19 pieces of special-purpose military equipment, have been brought from… the Verona Villafranca Airport,” it said.

A total of 10 Russian planes have already arrived from Verona. From March 22 to May 7, Russian specialists working with Italian military personnel fully disinfected care homes for elderly people and other facilities in around 100 communities in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy.

They also disinfected 120 buildings and structures, over 1,200,000 square meters of internal premises and more than 500,000 square meters of paved roads.

Since April 6, when a field hospital was opened in Bergamo, Russia military medics provided treatment to 115 patients, with 76 of them now having recovered, TASS said, citing the ministry.