Russian authorities denied that a virus outbreak has hit the country after videos circulating online showed rows of ambulances lining up outside infectious disease hospitals in Moscow.

The Moscow Department of Health responded after Russian-language Telegram channel Baza, which is linked to the country’s security services, released the footage and said the ambulances were filmed outside two hospitals in the capital on Sunday evening.

“A queue of ambulances at Infectious Diseases Hospitals No. 1 and No. 2 in Moscow,” Baza reported. “Most of the sick people have pneumonia. According to Baza, about 30 ambulances gathered at the first hospital, and more than 10 ambulances at the second hospital.”

Days earlier, Russian media outlet MK.ru reported that an “incomprehensible virus began to spread across Russia.”

Newsweek contacted Russia’s foreign ministry for comment via email.

The local health department said lines of ambulances waiting outside hospitals is not unusual, and that infection rates for COVID-19 and acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI) have not increased in recent weeks.

“The situation when several ambulances arrive for hospitalization in an infectious diseases hospital is standard,” it said in a statement. “The growth in the incidence of ARVI and COVID in Moscow has slowed down; the figures for the last week do not exceed the data of the previous period. And COVID incidence rates have been declining for 2 weeks. Over the next 1-2 weeks, the incidence rate is predicted to reach a plateau.”

Russia: A massive queue of ambulances arrived at Moscow's Infectious Disease Hospitals #1 and #2. The majority of patients brought in reportedly have symptoms of pneumonia. pic.twitter.com/HDAk0cGCsS

— Igor Sushko (@igorsushko) December 17, 2023

The department said there is “no significant increase in hospitalizations in the city” and that the “morbidity situation is normal and corresponds to the epidemic season.

“Having up to 24 cars on site at the same time is standard practice during peak hours and is not a queue or an emergency situation.

“The hospital regularly monitors the arrival of patients; the situation, when there were about 23 cars on the territory, was resolved within half an hour. In [hospital] No. 2, similarly…the presence of 10 cars on the territory is the absolute norm,” the department added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on December 15 that respiratory infectious diseases are on the rise across WHO’s European region.

“To a large extent, a seasonal increase in respiratory pathogens is expected, but this year’s increase could also be attributed to infections among children who were protected during the pandemic, and because some of these pathogens vary in circulation each winter,” Marc-Alain Widdowson, high-threat pathogen lead at the WHO Regional Office for Europe, said in a statement.

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