The first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been confirmed on Monday in Jordan, Rome, and Andorra, media reported.
A Jordanian man who recently came back from Italy has tested positive for the new coronavirus, becoming the first confirmed case in the kingdom, Health Minister Saad Jaber says.
He arrived on Feb. 15 from Italy.
A medical team is testing his family. If the results came back negative, they will remain in home isolation for two weeks, Jaber said.
The man’s friend, who was on the same trip to Italy, has tested negatively, however he will remain in quarantine for another week to be tested again, Jaber added.
The infected man was placed under quarantine in a hospital, he said.
In another development, the first novel coronavirus case was registered in the Italian capital of Rome on Monday, Ansa news agency reported.
According to the agency, a police officer has been tested positive at Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases.
Regional health councilor Alessio D’Amato said that the policeman’s contacts and movements have been reconstructed, connecting his case to the Lombardy region, where the majority of Italy’s COVID-19 cases are located.
“The epidemiological link with the Lombardy region has been confirmed,” D’Amato said.
Currently, more than 1,500 cases of the coronavirus disease have been registered in Italy, with the death toll exceeding 30.
Similarly, Andorra has registered the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), its government said on Monday.
“The Health Ministry activates protocols due to a positive coronavirus case.
“The health authorities confirm that the test results of the 20-year-old patient … have been positive,” the government tweeted.
According to the Catalan El Periodico newspaper, the infected person, hospitalised on Saturday, earlier visited northern Italy, where the highest number of coronavirus disease cases in Europe has been registered.
Another two people from the same flight that the infected individual took have been put under observation.
COVID-19 was first detected in China in late December 2019 and has since spread to more than 50 countries, prompting the World Health Organisation to declare a global health emergency.
So far, the virus has infected more than 89,000 people worldwide, with more than 3,000 people having died and over 45,000 recovered. (Sputnik/NAN)
