Southern Switzerland has confirmed its first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) near the border with Italy, which has been harshly stricken by the illness, the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health said in a statement on Tuesday.
"A case of infection with the new coronavirus disease — COVID-19 — was confirmed in a person from the canton of Ticino. The patient has been hospitalized and is being kept in isolation," the statement read.
According to the outlet, the case was found in the Italian-speaking Ticino canton on the border with Italy.
#Coronavirus Erster Fall bestätigt, Medienkonferenz um 17.00 Uhr / Premier cas confirmé, conférence de presse à 17h00 / Primo caso confermato, Conferenza stampa alle 17.00 ore #COVID19
— BAG – OFSP – UFSP (@BAG_OFSP_UFSP) February 25, 2020
On Monday, the Swiss authorities said that the country was in the state of "heightened vigilance" and had tested some 300 people suspected of being infected with coronavirus, though all the cases were found negative.
The new coronavirus, officially named COVID-19, was first registered in central China in late December and has since spread to some 30 countries, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a global health emergency.
