Twenty-seven Russian nationals residing in North Korea were evacuated to their home country on Wednesday, according to the country’s embassy in the DPRK.

The evacuation comes a day after North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) distributed a note about strengthened COVID-19 prevention measures to diplomats and international organization staff residing in Pyongyang.

North Korea’s leadership recently shifted the country’s anti-epidemic system to “maximum emergency” levels after convening a major Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee meeting on July 25, where members discussed the country’s first suspected case of COVID-19 allegedly caused by a redefector traveling from the South.