US to send Russia 200 ventilators

The United States says it will start delivering 200 medical ventilators to Russia this week, which has the world's second highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases.

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. Only the United States has reported more coronavirus cases.

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 coronavirus, has been discharged from a clinic and is now working normally, the Interfax news agency quoted his spokesman as saying on Tuesday.

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

The presidents spoke by telephone on May 7.

A 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 US 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 hospital in Moscow and St Petersburg.

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