The new Corona virus has arrived in Latin America, which was immune from the epidemic, with Brazil announcing Wednesday that it recorded the first confirmed case of a man in Sao Paulo, in the southeast of the country, was He has visited Italy recently.
"We have confirmed an infection" of a 61-year-old man who recently returned from Italy, where he spent about two weeks in the Lombardy region in northern Italy, which has become a focus of the virus, said Brazilian Health Minister Luis Enrique Mandita.
The minister´s announcement led to a significant decline in the São Paulo Stock Exchange, which lost 6.87 percent before the end of the trading session.
Brazil, the largest country in Latin America with a population of 210 million, has 15,000 km of borders with ten countries: Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and Guyana of France.
Brazil ends this week´s carnival celebrations in major cities, where the number of participants has sometimes exceeded 1 million.
In a press conference held in Brasilia, the minister said, "The victim stayed from 9 to 20 February" in Italy, adding that the man "arrived (to Brazil) and did not show any symptoms of fever and met the family."
The minister continued that the patient consulted a doctor after he showed symptoms of influenza, especially that he had just returned from Italy.
The minister indicated that the man underwent a first examination at Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo and his result was positive and was confirmed at the Adolfo Lotus Institute.
Health Adviser Jose Enrique Germain Ferrera confirmed that the patient was placed in isolation in his home and was "in good condition."
Health authorities seek to communicate with the victim´s relatives, and everyone who has been in direct contact with him.
Brazil has monitored 20 suspected cases of the emerging coronavirus, 12 of which belong to people who visited Italy recently, authorities said on Wednesday.
In China, the first epicenter of the virus, the new Corona infected 78,000 people, of whom more than 2178 died.
Outside of China, outbreaks of the emerging Corona virus were recorded in about forty countries, which killed about fifty people and infected nearly 2,800 people. Italy is the European country most affected by the epidemic, with 370 cases and 12 deaths.
The Minister of Health said "there are no limits" to prevent the spread of the virus, saying only that Brazilians should avoid leaving their homes if they feel fever.
"We cannot detain people, there is no point in that," Mandela added, in a region that is "an opening point to the world", referring to São Paulo with a population of 12 million.
At the Guarulioch International Airport in Sao Paulo, an AFP correspondent reported on Wednesday noon that the authorities had not taken any special measures. It seems that the manifestations of virus prevention at this airport, which is the largest in Brazil, are restricted to putting some employees as masks.
While Rio de Janeiro Tuesday concluded the Carnival reviews, its activities continue in the largest Brazilian cities until Sunday.
"Everything will go well. Nothing can stop the holiday," said Gabriel Saltino, a member of one of the teams taking part in the carnival.
"It is a new flu that we have to get past," the health minister said, adding, "As is the case with all viruses, the (medical) response is the most effective method," praising the medical staff at Albert Einstein Hospital.
Brazil´s neighbors have not shown any real concern about the first infection with the Corona virus, which is emerging in Sao Paulo.
"We will closely follow the measures taken in Brazil and those that we will apply to travelers coming from this country," said Paula Dasa, adviser to the Minister of Health of Chile, which has close commercial relations with Brazil.
For his part, Argentine Health Minister Guinness Gonzalez Garcia stressed that "if the virus breaks out in Brazil, we will have to amend the measures currently in place. But we will not make any modification just to record one case of infection."
