Belarus and Lithuania Report First Cases of Coronavirus

Lithuania reported its first case of coronavirus early Friday morning. A female patient was diagnosed with the virus after returning from Verona in northern Italy on February 24. 

The infected patient is isolated at a hospital in Šiauliai, a northern Lithuanian town that has now been declared the country's epicentre of the novel coronavirus.

"The woman and her family members – her brother and father – are in hospital. The woman feels fine, and her family members also. [They] are undergoing additional tests to find out if they are carrying the virus," Skirmantas Malinauskas, an adviser to the Lithuanian Prime Minister, told LRT on Friday.

Belarus has also registered its first case of coronavirus; the carrier is a student from Iran.

Due to the recent developments, the Healthcare Ministry of Belarus issued a decision to extend medical examinations and laboratory tests to all people arriving from the Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy starting February 20.

To date, more than 80,000 cases of the coronavirus have been confirmed globally and up to 2,700 persons have died of the disease.

By Elene Dzebishashvili