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Belarus registers 36 coronavirus cases, health ministry says

Five students of the Belarusian State University have twice tested positive for COVID-19 without showing any symptoms of the disease, according to the country’s health ministry

MINSK, March 16. /TASS/. The number of patients in Belarus, who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, has risen to 36, the country’s health ministry said on Monday.

Earlier reports said 27 coronavirus cases had been confirmed.

"Thirty-six patients have been registered in Belarus who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2," the ministry informed.

Five students of the Belarusian State University have twice tested positive for COVID-19 without showing any symptoms of the disease. Four other coronavirus patients had arrived from Munich, Amsterdam and Moscow. "All patients have been quarantined since returning from abroad. Their close contacts have been also hospitalized," according to the ministry.

Three patients have been discharged while three others are preparing to leave hospitals soon. Eight patients have mild symptoms of infection and one is in moderately severe condition with positive dynamics. Other patients don’t have any symptoms of infection.

Since early February, specialists of the Republican and Practical Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology have carried out more than 16,000 tests for COVID-19. Some 2,583 people remain under medical control, but none of them have any symptoms of infection.

The outbreak of a disease caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was registered in central China in late December 2019. The World Health Organization recognized the situation with the novel coronavirus as a pandemic on March 11. Outside China, the worst affected countries are Italy, South Korea and Iran. Overall, more than 150 countries and territories, including Russia, have reported confirmed coronavirus cases. The WHO says that the novel coronavirus cases globally have exceeded 160,000, with more than 6,000 deaths (over 3,200 in China). According to the emergency operations center, 63 coronavirus cases have been registered in Russia.