TEHRAN, Mar. 11 (MNA) – Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro urged the opposition to stop politicizing the situation around the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"Don't be so vile. Don't politicize the topic that is so sensitive for the whole mankind," Maduro said during a speech in Caracas broadcast on national television. Maduro added that representatives of the opposition "wish for the coronavirus to appear in Venezuela" on social networks.

No cases of the virus have been confirmed in Venezuela so far.

The Chinese authorities registered an outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the city of Wuhan. Cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed in more than 100 other countries, including in Russia. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Outside of China, most cases of the new coronavirus were reported in South Korea, Iran, and Italy.

In China, over 3,100 people died, nearly 60,000 people recovered, and the number of cases reached 80,700. Over 110,000 cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed in the world so far.

MNA/TASS