Number of coronavirus infection cases in the Czech Republic rises to 12

Prague, March 5 (CTK) – The number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the Czech Republic rose to 12, the Health Ministry reported in a press release today.

Out of the four new cases since Wednesday, two are people who were in contact with previously confirmed patients and two others, a man from Prague and a man from Italy.

“In one case, the newly infected patient is a close family contact of the first case from Usti nad Labem, north Bohemia, now hospitalised in the Masaryk hospital. According to expectations, the second new case is a man from Prague who is a close family contact of a woman whose test results showed positive on Wednesday. Both are now in isolation at Prague’s Na Bulovce hospital,” the ministry’s spokeswoman Gabriela Stepanyova said.

The other two newly confirmed cases, a man and child from Prague, are also in isolation at the same hospital, bringing the number of isolated persons there to eight.

“The Prague Sanitation Office is now performing an epidemiological investigation, looking for all persons that came in contact with the newly infected,” Stepanyova added.

The first three cases in the Czech Republic were reported on Sunday. All the persons stayed in risky areas in northern Italy.

A university lecturer 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 other two infected persons are a man and a woman from Decin, north Bohemia, who went skiing to the Veneto region in Northern Italy. The number of infected persons from this group rose to five and others from the several Czech families returned from the Veneto region are in home quarantine.

Four out of the five infected in the Decin group are hospitalised at the Masaryk hospital.

Testing for coronavirus infection was newly expanded in the Czech Republic to include more than just the persons returned from coronavirus-stricken countries.

The decision to perform tests is now to be made by physicians and sanitary officers.