Mexico confirms first 2 cases of coronavirus

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s assistant health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell said one of the patients is in Mexico City and the other in the northern state of Sinaloa. While a second test is still pending on that case, he said, “We are treating this as confirmed.” Neither is seriously ill; one is in isolation at a hospital, the other is isolated at a hotel.

At least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. He said the men had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak and had returned to Mexico between last Friday and Saturday.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus, saying “it isn’t even equivalent to flu.”

https://apnews.com/a7d2aaac19fc3022ba686ba91e7d4395