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Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia receive UAE aid

Head of Karachay-Cherkessia Rashid Temrezov and the Head of Kabardino-Balkaria Kazbeg Kokov have confirmed receiving aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

Both thanked Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, for the donation, and Head of Chechnya for facilitating the transfer.

A similar shipment including personal protective equipment for doctors, disinfectants, and test kits was delivered to Daghestan.

Chechnya, whose head Ramzan Kadyrov has in tried to attract investments from the UAE in recent years, was the first to receive aid earlier this month.

Russian medics arrive in Armenia

The first group of Russian physicians arrived on Sunday in Yerevan to help their Armenian colleagues in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak. 

According to the Armenian Health Ministry, In total, 50 Russian medics are expected to go to Armenia to aid their Armenian colleagues. 

With the same flight, Armenia also received medical equipment from Moscow-based charitable group Viva. Doctors and Volunteers of Armenia. The shipment included oxygen concentrators and vital signs monitors. 

Summary

Welcome to OC Media’s coronavirus live updates for Monday, 22 June. We will be bringing you the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic from around the Caucasus.

The biggest developments from over the weekend:

On Saturday, the total number of coronavirus cases in Armenia surpassed 20,000. As of today, there are 10,980 active cases in the country.

Armenian authorities have kept in place a state of emergency that was announced on 16 March, after the first 30 cases were confirmed.  

On Friday, Abkhazia’s State Security Service announced that they would temporarily reopen the Enguri (Ingur) checkpoint with Georgia’s Western Samegrelo region to allow local residents to return to Abkhazia. According to them, the crossing will close again on 24 June.

The Abkhazian authorities said that they would check the health condition of returnees, without specifying further details.

On Sunday, the Head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that the ‘third stage’ of rescinding anti-coronavirus restrictions would start on Monday, which would include allowing free movement within the republic. 

Kadyrov reminded residents through his Telegram channel to strictly follow recommendations of health authorities: wearing face masks and observing social distance. 

 For ease of reading, we choose not to use qualifiers such as ‘de facto’, ‘unrecognised’, or ‘partially recognised’ when discussing institutions or political positions within Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, and South Ossetia. This does not imply a position on their status.

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