The German case is the first instance of the disease spreading between people who are not related or in close contact.
Rabat – Germany has confirmed its first case of coronavirus.
Coronavirus is a fatal and highly contagious disease that causes respiratory infection. The disease has killed at least 106 people since its outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019.
A man from Starnberg, Germany contracted the disease from a Chinese colleague who attended a company training session last week in the German state of Bavaria.
Andreas Zapf, head of the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety, reported in a press conference that the colleague, a woman from Shanghai, “started to feel sick on the flight home on January 23.”
Zapf assured that the man who contracted the virus is in a “medically good state.”
The Bavarian Ministry of Health released a statement on Monday, January 27, reporting that the man is under surveillance in an isolation ward. The statement maintained that the risk of infection for the people of Bavaria is “low.”
“People who have been in contact (with the patient) have been informed in detail about possible symptoms, hygiene measures and transmission channels,” the statement added.
The Bavarian case joins the 50 cases of coronavirus that have been recorded outside of China.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn affirmed that Germany is well-prepared to face the arrival of coronavirus in Germany.
“It was expected that the virus would come to Germany,” he wrote on Twitter. “The case in Bavaria shows that we’re well prepared.”
South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the US, France, Canada, Australia, and now Germany have all confirmed cases of the disease.
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