The health authorities in Belgium and Spain are investigating the case of a Spanish woman who became ill with the Covid-19 virus after visiting Belgium.
The 39-year-old woman returned home to Pamplona in Spain on Friday after visiting Belgium for several days. She immediately presented with the symptoms of infection in both lungs.
She was transferred to a hospital in Navarra, where she tested positive for the coronavirus Covid-19.
The woman has now been placed in isolation, and her condition is said to be serious, according to the manager of the hospital. The region’s health minister, Santos Induràin, said Belgium was not on the list of high-risk countries.
The investigation will now try to determine how and when she was infected.
Meanwhile Charleroi airport is to install a new crisis centre after it was discovered that a man who has now become the first corona case in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg passed through the airport on his way home from Italy.
The airport authorities are in contact with the health ministry in Luxembourg to determine the man’s travel routes and possible contacts he may have had on the way, including airport staff.
He is now in isolation in a hospital in Luxembourg, together with his family who were travelling with him. They, and other members of the family, have so far shown no symptoms.
The airport has also called together its permanent committee for health matters, and will inform staff and passengers of the situation at present.
The airport said it was awaiting instructions from the competent authorities regarding the deployment of other measures at a national level.
Elsewhere, new cases of the infection have turned up in Armenia, Qatar, Mexico, Ecuador and Ireland. Thailand reported its first fatality, while the number of those infected in South Korea passed 3,500.
According to the latest count from the World Health Organisation (WHO), 85,400 cases of Covid-19 infection have been confirmed, about 79,000 of them in China.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
