Two more cases of coronavirus confirmed in Czech Republic, total now five

Prague, March 3 (CTK) – Laboratory tests have confirmed a total of five cases of the novel coronavirus in the Czech Republic, Health Minister Adam Vojtech (for ANO) told journalists today.

The two women who were added to the number were in contact with the previous cases.

In all, 236 people have been tested in the Czech Republic, while the authorities are waiting for 16 results.

The first three cases were reported on Sunday. All the persons stayed in risky areas in northern Italy. A university teacher was on a conference in Udine, northern Italy. A young American woman, who was as a tourist in the Czech Republic, studies in Milan. Her fellow traveller from Ecuador is the latest confirmed case. In her case, the virus was only confirmed by repeated testing.

The director of the Prague sanitary station, Zdenka Jagrova, said the contacts of all the infected persons had been tracked down in detail.

On February 24, both tourists arrived from Milan in Vienna where they were accommodated in a hotel. Then they moved to Budapest, Brno and Prague, where they lived in an Airbnb.

The driver and 18 passengers from the bus in which the girls drove, two cab drivers and the waiter from the restaurant in which they had lunch are in quarantine.

The flat in which they stayed is not on lease for a week and will be disinfected.

It is of major importance that all the confirmed cases were in contact, Vojtech said.

The members of the families that were skiing along with the infected persons in the Veneto Region are also being watched.

All the ill have minor or no symptoms. Apart from the woman in Usti nad Labem, they are all in the Na Bulovce hospital, Vojtech said.

Ivo Chrastecky, the spokesman for the Regional Health company, which administers the Masaryk Hospital in Usti nad Labem, has confirmed to CTK that the infected woman will stay in the hospital.