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Three more countries confirm 1st COVID-19 cases, governments boost containment efforts
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Armenia, the Dominican Republic, and the Czech Republic joined the list of countries reporting their first cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, while the worst-hit countries have been strengthening their efforts in the fight against the epidemic.
The first confirmed case in the Dominican Republic is a 62-year-old tourist from Italy, now in a stable condition in a military hospital, the country’s health authority said.
The Czech Republic reported the first three confirmed cases, two of which are in Prague’s Na Bulovce Hospital, and the third is in Masaryk Hospital in Usti nad Labem. The two men and a woman have all traveled to Italy recently, said Health Minister Adam Vojtech.
The first confirmed case in Armenia is a male Armenian citizen, who returned on Friday on a repatriation flight from Iran and on Sunday tested positive for COVID-19. As a precautionary measure, 30 others are to be quarantined, according to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Many countries facing new confirmed cases have been stepping up their efforts against the disease.
In the United Kingdom, local government on Sunday reported the first confirmed case in Scotland, bringing the total number across the UK to 36. The patient, who recently returned from northern Italy, is being treated in isolation, and clinicians have begun contact tracing.
In light of the situation, the British government has arranged a meeting of its emergency committee, to be chaired by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday.
The U.S. state of New York confirmed its first case on Sunday, a woman in her late 30s who contracted the virus while traveling in Iran. Meanwhile, Washington State reported its second coronavirus death on Sunday evening, one day after it declared a state of emergency after the first death caused by the disease in the United States was reported in the state.
More cases of COVID-19 of unknown origin have been reported in western U.S. states, triggering concern about local person-to-person spread of the infectious disease. Oregon reported a confirmed case of a patient with no travel history nor close contact with infected individuals.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned the public of an inevitable outbreak of coronavirus within the country.
The Irish Health Department said Sunday that a secondary school in the east of Ireland will be closed for 14 days, after links with the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the country were discovered.
Meanwhile, the governments of some of the worst-hit countries have rolled out extra measures to contain a further spread of the disease.
South Korea confirmed 476 more cases on Monday, taking the total number of infections to 4,212 and the death toll to at least 22.
With virus infections soaring over the past two weeks, the country has raised its four-tier virus alert to the highest level, and designated Daegu and its neighboring county in the south Cheongdo as “special care” zones.