YEREVAN, MARCH 7, ARMENPRESS. The first case of the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Malta, the country’s health minister Chris Fearne said, Malta Today reported.

The minister said the patient is a 12-year-old girl who arrived from Italy on March 3.

A pneumonia outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus (previously known as 2019-nCoV) was reported in China’s Wuhan, a large trade and industrial center, in late December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency of international concern, describing it as an epidemic with multiple locations. The number of novel coronavirus cases worldwide has surpassed 100,000, reported by TASS.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan