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First coronavirus case registered in Ukraine

The man arrived home in a car from Romania, to which he had flown from Italy

KIEV, March 3. /TASS/. The first case of the novel coronavirus infection has been confirmed in Ukraine, Chief Sanitary Doctor Viktor Lyashko announced on Tuesday.

"Yesterday I spoke about four suspected cases. Today one suspected case was confirmed as the infection," he said at a special news briefing.

A man in Chernovtsy in southwestern Ukraine tested positive for the novel coronavirus after he arrived home in a car from Romania, to which he had flown from Italy, the chief sanitary doctor said.

"The main has been hospitalized. There are few contact persons. All of them are known to epidemiologists and are staying in the isolation regime," he assured.

The Ukrainian authorities are getting in touch with Bucharest so that Romania launches a check-up of all the passengers of the flight, on which the infected Ukrainian had been, the chief sanitary doctor said.

A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s city of Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center with a population of 12 million, in late December. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing it as an epidemic with "multiple foci."

In China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, more than 2,900 people have died, 80,000 have been infected and another 47,200 have recovered. Besides China, major coronavirus outbreaks have been reported in Italy and South Korea. The cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed in more than 70 countries, including Russia.