18:41 4 March 2020
First case of coronavirus in Poland
Łukasz Szumowski, health minister, confirmed the first case of coronavirus in the country on Wednesday morning. He added that the patient has been hospitalized in Zielona Góra, western Poland. The infected person reportedly came from Germany.
The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus causes a disease called COVID-19. It usually causes fever, coughing, shortness of breath, muscle aches and fatigue. Severe symptoms of the disease are observed in about 15-20 percent of people. Coronavirus kills about 2-3 percent of patients. But experts estimate that the numbers may be overestimated because many people with a light symptom probably do not undergo laboratory tests.
It is suspected that coronavirus infection originated in central China at the end of 2019 at a market in Wuhan, where wild animals, among others, were sold.
(PAP)
