[Read more on Brazil’s Coronavirus cases and deaths.]

RIO DE JANEIRO — A 61-year-old São Paulo man who returned recently from a business trip to Italy has tested positive for the coronavirus, Brazilian health officials said on Wednesday, confirming the first known case in Latin America and sending a shudder through the entire region.

Officials were scrambling on Wednesday to track down the other passengers on the flight the man took to Brazil and to find others who had contact with him in recent days. The infection news broke in the midst of Brazil’s Carnival celebrations, popular with foreign visitors.

The first confirmed case also compounded concerns about the potential economic toll on Latin America from the coronavirus, which has since spread to more than two dozen countries around the world. Stock prices plunged in Brazil and Mexico on Wednesday amid growing signs that emergency measures aimed at containing the spread could jam supply chains and impede freedom of movement for a lengthy period.

“Everything is pointing to this epidemic being longer than we had anticipated,” said Welber Barral, a commerce expert in Brazil. “Global supply chains are integrated.”