Poland announces first confirmed new coronavirus case

Poland on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of the new coronavirus, highlighting the disease’s spread around the world in spite of health officials’ efforts to contain it.

Health Minister, Lukasz Szumowski, said that the patient is feeling well and is being treated in a hospital in Zielona Gora in the west of the country.

“The patient recently visited Germany.

The patient’s family, and people the man had contact with, are being quarantined,’’ the minister said.

In total, 500 people are being currently quarantined in Poland, while 68 people suspected of having contracted the virus are treated in hospitals.

Tens of thousands of people around the world have contracted the new strain of coronavirus, which began spreading in the industrial hub of Wuhan, China, in December.

The WHO reiterated, this week, that it is not a foregone conclusion that the virus will keep spreading.

However, in spite of efforts, new cases keep popping up.

WHO said the bulk of the cases remain concentrated in five countries: China, Japan, Iran, Italy and South Korea.