Coronaviridae

The government on Thursday moved a step closer to enforcing a set of emergency measures for the containment of the coronavirus after health authorities confirmed that two more people have tested positive for the virus, bringing the total number of cases in Greece to three.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov has convened an extraordinary meeting of the Security Council, the government press office reported.

On the prime minister's orders, the extraordinary meeting will be held today at 11:30 am.

The first case of the new coronavirus has been confirmed in Northern Ireland. This was reported by BTA, citing local authorities.

The head of the Northern Ireland Health Service, told reporters that the patient was traveling from Italy through Dublin.

The number of novel coronavirus cases in Europe continues to rise, with more countries on the continent confirming their first cases.      

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said that the number of coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 38.     

"When we were struck by variola vera, there was not as much fear, panic and lies as there is today for something that has weaker symptoms than the ordinary flu. If there were no tests, one would not even know what these people died of, since it was thought to be from flu or sneezing when it comes to the people with impaired immunity and damaged health", he said.

Serbia has no confirmed cases of coronavirus yet, but on Tuesday a WhatsApp voice message began doing the rounds on social media claiming several people had already died from the virus in the capital, Belgrade.

"Doctors are strictly forbidden to talk about the virus," the woman is heard saying on the message, which was published on several Serbian news portals.

It was simply a matter of time before the corona virus crossed the borders of Greece as it did yesterday and now we must learn how to live with it.

As trite as it may seem until a suitable treatment is developed to manage the virus the only "antidotes" are calm, prevention, and reliable information.

The first batches of the new COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine are ready and sent to health regulators for approval. The vaccine was developed by American biotechnology company Modern Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to Times. The development process was completed in a record-breaking time. It's only 42 days since Chinese scientists released the genetic code of the virus.

Greece reported two new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to three, and said it would suspend all carnival celebrations in the country.

Turkey ramped up measures at its border gates yesterday as the coronavirus outbreak reached its western and northern neighbors amid an increase in the number of cases and deaths in its eastern neighbor Iran.