Spanish Coronavirus ‘serious’ case linked to Belgium raises concern
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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.
Brussels Times reports that 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.
According to the report, 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.
El Pais reports that a total of 34 cases had been registered in Spain by Friday afternoon since the global epidemic broke out. Of those, 32 were detected this week after hospitals adapted their criteria for testing and began checking patients hospitalized with pneumonia. Two other patients who fell ill in late January and early February have since been discharged.
Five cases have been diagnosed in Madrid, six in the Canary Islands, three in Catalonia, one in the Balearic Islands, one in Aragón, two in Castilla y León, seven in Andalusia and nine in the Valencia region. Of the 32 active cases, just one patient is in a serious condition, a 77-year-old man in the intensive care unit of Torrejón de Ardoz Hospital in the east of the Madrid region.
