MMA star Khabib urges ‘discipline’

MOSCOW: Russian Mixed Martial Arts fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov has appealed to residents of his native Dagestan to follow containment rules as his father was put on a ventilator after catching the novel coronavirus.

The undefeated UFC lightweight champion took to Instagram late Monday to urge people in the southern Russian region to be “disciplined” and to “listen to our doctors” during the epidemic.

Nurmagomedov enjoys celebrity status in Dagestan, where the coronavirus situation has been described as a “catastrophe” by officials, forcing President Vladimir Putin to intervene. The government promised to send additional equipment to the region, where over 600 people died of “pneumonia”, according to health officials.

The 31-year-old told his 20 million followers in a video that doctors are “pleading” for people to stay at home, even as the majority-Muslim region gears up to celebrate the end of Ramadan this weekend.