Soon there might be reports about another three cases of COVID-19 in the country, Belarusian health workers announced at Monday’s press conference.
If their fears are confirmed, the number of the country’s residents who are ill with the novel coronavirus will total to nine.
“Yesterday we received the results confirming the presence of the coronavirus’ RNA in the tests of three persons who had close contact with the infected with COVID-19. If re-tests prove it, one might talk of nine coronavirus cases in Belarus,” Health Minister Uladzimir Karanik said.
According to him, the three persons are only carriers; at the moment, they show no clinical symptoms of the disease.
The first case was detected and confirmed in Belarus in late February: an Iranian national who is studying at the Belarusian National Technical University tested positive. A week before, he came to the country from Baku. On February 29, the Health Ministry said that the father of a girlfriend of the BNTU student from Iran could also be infected. The agency called the results of his tests ‘questionable’.
On March 1, the Health Ministry reported that a test of resident of Vitsebsk region revealed that a fragment of RNA ‘may belong’ to the 2019-nCoV. Shortly before, the woman and her colleagues had been to Italy on a business trip. On March 3, the ministry registered the fourth patient with coronavirus; a day later, two more COVID-19 cases were recorded.
