Russia said yesterday it was closing its border with China to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus and would stop issuing electronic visas to Chinese nationals.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told a government meeting that the order had been signed “to take measures to close the border (with China) in the Far East”.

“We have to do everything to protect our people,” he said.

The Russian foreign ministry said that as of Thursday it would stop issuing Chinese citizens with electronic visas, which can be used to cross into parts of the Far East and western Russia.

The foreign ministry also advised Russians to refrain from travelling to China and for those in China to get in touch with the Russian embassy. Russia does not have any confirmed cases of the new virus but the Russian government has set up a task force to prevent its possible spread.

Meanwhile, the daughter of a Chinese tourist who is seriously ill in a Paris hospital has become the fifth person in France to be confirmed with the coronavirus, officials said Wednesday.

Her 80-year-old father was the fourth confirmed case in France of the new coronavirus that has killed more than 100 people since it emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December.

“A fifth case has been detected,” Health Minister Agnes Buzyn told a news briefing.

“It’s the daughter of the Chinese tourist who was hospitalised recently in intensive care in a serious condition,” Buzyn added.

The woman in her thirties, “whose condition has worsened, who needs oxygen,” has also been placed in intensive care, Buzyn said.