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Two new coronavirus cases confirmed in England and first in Wales brings UK total to 19

 Rome February 27th 2020. Tourists wearing masks around Trevi Fountains. Photo Samantha Zucchi /Insidefoto/Sipa USA)
Tourists wearing masks around the Trevi Fountains in Rome after a coronavirus outbreak in northern Italy. (Samantha Zucchi /Insidefoto/Sipa USA)

The first of coronavirus has been confirmed in Wales and two new cases have been confirmed in England, bringing the total number of infections in the the UK to 19.

17 of the cases are in England.

A British tourist on the Diamond Princess cruise ship has died from coronavirus, Japan’s health ministry confirmed on Friday.

The patient in Wales recently returned from Italy, and the patients in England contracted the illness in Iran.

Northern Ireland confirmed its first case on Thursday, also confirming that the patient had travelled to Italy.

Public Health Wales said medics were trying to trace people who had been in close contact with the patient.

Dr Giri Shankar, incident director for the Covid-19 outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said: “Public Health Wales is working hard to identify close contacts, and we are taking all appropriate actions to reduce any risk to the public’s health.

It comes as European countries battle the spread of the new coronavirus, officially known as Covid-19.

Read more: Major public events could be cancelled due to coronavirus spread

An outbreak in northern Italy has seen more than 400 positive cases, with a number of towns under quarantine.

The first case has been confirmed in sub-Saharan Africa, after a patient tested positive in Nigeria.

Experts are warning of widespread social and economic impacts stemming from attempts to contain the illness.

Castiglione d�Adda, Italy - 27 February 2020: Military personnel wearing protective respiratory masks gesticulate at the border of the isolated small town of Castiglione d�Adda as measures are taken to contain the outbreak of Coronavirus COVID-19 (Photo by Piero Cruciatti/Sipa USA)
Soldiers wearing protective respiratory masks gesticulate at the border of the isolated small town of Castiglione d'Adda in Italy as measures are taken to contain the outbreak of coronavirus. (Piero Cruciatti/Sipa USA)

A number of schools in England are closed, including Burbage Primary School in Buxton, which shut after a parent tested positive for the virus after a trip to Italy.

Read more: France warned to prepare for outbreak similar to Italy

England’s chief medical officer has warned schools could be closed for more than tow months it the outbreak becomes “out of control”.

These are the coronavirus cases confirmed in Europe. (PA Graphics)
These are the coronavirus cases confirmed in Europe. (PA Graphics)

Professor Chris Whitty said: “One of the things that's really clear with this virus, much more so than flu, is that anything we do we're going to have to do for quite a long period of time, probably more than two months.

"The implications of that are non-trivial, so we need to think that through carefully.

"This is something we face as really quite a serious problem for society potentially if this goes out of control."

The Swiss government has banned all events involving more than 1,000 people.

In China, authorities have reported another sharp decrease in the number of infections.

Mainland China reported 327 new cases and 44 deaths in the 24 hours to Friday morning, according to the country’s National Health Commission.

The update brings China’s total number of cases to 78,824 and deaths to 2,788, while more than 3,600 infections have been reported outside China.

The global count of those sickened by the virus hovered around 82,000.