BISHKEK, March 18. /TASS/. Three cases of the novel coronavirus have been registered on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, Kosmosbek Cholponbayev, the Kyrgyz Health Minister, said on Wednesday.

"We have registered three cases of the novel coronavirus disease in the country and they are the first ones to be reported," Cholponbayev told a news conference. "All three patients, diagnosed with the virus, went earlier on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia."

COVID-19 Global Spread

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese authorities reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown etiology in Wuhan, an economic and industrial megalopolis with a population of 11 million.

The virus was identified on January 7 as 2019-nCoV. The World Health Organization declared in January that the new coronavirus outbreak was a public health emergency of international concern, characterizing it as an epidemic with multiple locations.

On February 11, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that the organization gave the novel coronavirus an official name of COVID-19. On March 11, the World Health Organization officially stated that the continuously spreading novel coronavirus was a global pandemic.

As of today, 165 countries and territories reported confirmed coronavirus cases. According to the latest reports, over 198,510 cases of patients infected with the novel coronavirus have been confirmed worldwide. The virus’ death toll has reached 7,988, yet more than 82,760 patients have recovered from the disease.