New coronavirus cases reported in Italy, Lebanon, UAE

New confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of more than 2,100 people in China, have been reported in northern Italy as well as Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

An outbreak of coronavirus in northern Italy worsened on Friday, with officials announcing 14 confirmed cases in the wealthy region of Lombardy, while two cases were reported in the adjacent region of Veneto.

Just hours after revealing that six people had come down with the virus in the first known cases of local transmission in Italy, officials said a further eight had tested positive for the disease, including five health workers.

Separately, ANSA news agency said two people had been diagnosed as suffering from the highly contagious illness in Veneto, although it was not immediately clear if the cases were connected.

Lebanon confirms first case of coronavirus

Meanwhile, Lebanon confirmed its first coronavirus case on Friday and said it was monitoring two other potential cases after a 45-year-old woman who returned from Iran tested positive.

Health Minister Hamad Hassan told a news conference the patient was taken directly to isolation from a plane arriving from the Iranian city of Qom on Thursday after exhibiting symptoms on the aircraft.

Two more people from the flight were suspected of carrying the virus on Friday and will be transferred to the same Beirut hospital for quarantine, Hassan said.

All other passengers were asked to stay isolated in their homes for 14 days, he said. Hassan told Reuters that the plane had around 150 passengers and that if any showed symptoms later, they would be tested and quarantined.

The plane was a Mahan Air flight that landed around 7.30 pm (1730 GMT) on Thursday.

The window of opportunity to contain wider worldwide spread of the epidemic of the new coronavirus disease is closing, the World Health Organization warned on Friday.

A coronavirus outbreak in Iran, which has so far seen four people die, began in the holy city of Qom, authorities in Iran said.

An Iranian health ministry official said the likely source was Chinese workers in Qom who had recently travelled to China, where the epidemic originated.

More than 2,100 people have died in China and new research suggesting the virus is more contagious than previously thought has heightened international alarm over the outbreak.

UAE records two new coronavirus cases

The United Arab Emirates said on Friday it had registered two new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with the virus in the Persian Gulf Arab state to 11.

The new cases in the UAE were detected in a 34-year-old Filipino national and a 39-year-old Bangladeshi national who had contact with a Chinese national who had been diagnosed with the virus, the health ministry said in a statement.

It said the two were in stable condition.

The UAE, a major international air transit center and tourism and business hub, recorded its first coronavirus case on January 28 when four members of a Chinese family were diagnosed.

It has since suspended passenger flights to mainland China, with the exception of Beijing.

Most of those diagnosed in the UAE with the virus have been Chinese citizens. Another Filipino national and one Indian national have also been infected, according to the health ministry.

Three of those previously diagnosed, all Chinese nationals, have fully recovered, the ministry has said.

The government has not disclosed where patients were being treated or which parts of the country they visited.

(Source: Reuters)

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