Argentina and Chile both said on Tuesday they had confirmed their first cases of new coronavirus in patients who recently returned from travels.
A 43-year-old infected Argentine man had returned from Italy while a 33-year-old Chilean man had spent a month in southeast Asia.
Health Minister Gines Gonzalez Garcia said the Argentine patient has been in isolation since presenting himself to a private health clinic.
“We’ve identified a first case. It’s a patient who came from Italy” but had also traveled around other parts of Europe, said Gonzalez Garcia.
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The minister, who added that “fortunately the case is not complicated,” said Argentina was prepared to tackle the virus.
Chile’s Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the 33-year-old patient had been taken to hospital in the city of Talca, around 350 kilometers (220 miles) to the south of the capital Santiago.
AFP
