Scores of Russians began two weeks of quarantine and coronavirus tests in a camp in Siberia on Wednesday after being flown home from China's Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of an outbreak of the fast-spreading disease. Russia, which has restricted crossings along its 4,300 km (2,670-mile) land border with China, last week reported its first two cases of coronavirus, both in Siberia and both involving Chinese nationals.

Nadezhda K., one of the Russian nationals evacuated from Wuhan, has been documenting the evacuation on her Instagram. nd.nadias / Instagram

No infection was detected among the two groups of 144 returnees — including 16 nationals of ex-Soviet countries — who were brought back to Tyumen airport on Wednesday in two military planes, the Defense Ministry said. The global death toll from the outbreak has risen to nearly 500, all but two in mainland China, and infections to close to 25,000. Medical staff in white safety gear met the first Russian plane, an Il-76 military transporter, early on Wednesday, footage posted by the country's coronavirus crisis center showed. All arrivals were being quarantined for two weeks in a camp some 30km (19 miles) outside Tyumen, said Russia's chief medical officer, Anna Popova. The camp is fenced, equipped with CCTV cameras and guarded by military patrols, the crisis center said. A city of 800,000 people, Tyumen is a focal point of Russia's huge oil industry - and for speculation on what impact the virus might have on the country's economy.