MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s government said on Friday it had detected the first cases of Covid-19 coronavirus infection in two men who had recently traveled to Italy, making the country the second in Latin America to register the virus.
A 35-year-old man who showed positive in an initial test in Mexico City went through a second test that turned up positive results early on Friday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez told a regular news conference.
The man was linked to the second case, a 41-year-old in the northern state of Sinaloa, Lopez-Gatell told reporters, speaking alongside President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Lopez Obrador urged the population to remain calm.
“We have the capacity to handle this situation,” he said. “Because according to the information available, this is not something terrible, really bad.”
The government would hold a daily evening news conference at 9pm until further notice to update the public on the status of coronavirus infections, Lopez Obrador added.
Mexico’s main stock index suffered one of its biggest falls in months, tumbling more than 4 per cent in morning trading, while the peso fell by more than 1 per cent against the dollar.
Both of the men confirmed with coronavirus were in Italy for about a week in mid-February, and likely became infected at a convention in the northern city of Bergamo, the government said in a visual presentation at the news conference.
The two were being held in isolation, one in a hospital and the other in a hotel in Sinaloa, Lopez-Gatell said.
The Mexico City resident had light, cold-like symptoms and was at low risk, he added. Officials were observing five of his family members in isolation.
In addition, two men who had been in direct contact with the infected men were under observation, one in isolation, the government said.
For now, there were no grounds for closing schools or having people stay away from their workplaces, Lopez-Gatell said.
“There’s absolutely no reason at this point,” he added. “There is no generalised transmission.”
Still, Lopez-Gatell recommended that people refrain from giving each other light hugs and kisses on the cheek that are commonplace greetings in Mexico.
Previously, Brazil had been the only country in Latin America to report a case of the new coronavirus. - REUTERS