The Russian prime minister on Thursday ordered the closure of the country’s border with China to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which has so far killed at least 170 people and sickened more than 7,700.

“The order was signed today and has taken effect,” Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said, according to the Moscow Times.

“We’ll inform everyone today about the border-closure measures in the Far East region and other activities taken by the Russian government [on coronavirus prevention],” he added.

The Foreign Ministry also stopped issuing Chinese nationals with electronic visas, which are used to cross into parts of Russia – and also advised Russians to avoid traveling to China.

Russia does not have any confirmed cases of the new virus but the Kremlin has set up a task force to prevent its possible spread.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization planned to meet Thursday to decide whether to declare the outbreak a global emergency.

Many governments have already urged their citizens not to visit China, while some have banned entry for travelers from Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have emerged from an animal market.

The Chinese government on Thursday reported 38 new deaths in the preceding 24 hours, the highest single-day total since the virus was detected late last year.

The number of confirmed new cases also grew steadily to 7,711 worldwide, an increase of 1,737 cases, the National Health Commission said, while another 81,000 people were under observation for possible infection.

Of the new deaths, 37 were in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is the capital, and one was in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

At least 15 countries have confirmed infections, with India and the Philippines reporting their first cases Thursday — in a traveler and a student who had both been in Wuhan.

South Korea confirmed a case that was locally spread, in a man who had contact with a previously diagnosed patient.

Three of Japan’s confirmed cases were among a group of evacuees who returned on a flight from Wuhan on Wednesday. A second flight carrying 210 Japanese evacuees landed Thursday in Tokyo, with nine of them showing signs of cough and fever, according to local reports.

The US evacuated 195 Americans from Wuhan who are being tested and monitored at a Southern California military base. Additional evacuation flights were being planned in the next few days, the US Embassy in Beijing said.

WHO emergencies chief Michael Ryan said China was taking “extraordinary measures in the face of an extraordinary challenge” posed by the outbreak.

So far, about 99 percent of the cases are in China. Ryan estimated the death rate from the new virus at 2 percent, adding that the figure was very preliminary. In comparison, the SARS virus killed about 10 percent of people who caught it.

With Post wires