BELGRADE, March 6. /TASS/. The first case of COVID-19 coronavirus infection has been registered in Serbia, Health Minister Zlatibor Loncar announced at the press conference Friday.

"I inform you that we have the first coronavirus case," the minister said, adding that the patient is a 43-year old man, and that his condition is stable.

The patient, who lives in Subotica in northern Serbia, has been infected during his stay in Hungary’s Budapest. He has been isolated in Subotica hospital, and everyone he contacted undergo testing, the minister said.

Earlier, two coronavirus cases have been reported in Banja Luka, the capital of Republica Srpska, a part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Before that, a number of Balkan states, including North Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia, have also reported coronavirus cases.

The Chinese authorities registered an outbreak of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV in the city of Wuhan. Cases of novel coronavirus were confirmed in more than 70 other countries, including in Russia. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. Outside of China, most cases of the new coronavirus were reported in South Korea and Italy.

In China, the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus exceeded 80,500, while the death toll surpassed 3,000, and over 53,500 people recovered and left hospitals. Outside of China, 267 people died from the new coronavirus, and the number of confirmed cases nears 15,000.