February 27, 1990
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times"
excerpt from "The Transcript" (North Adams, Massachusetts)
February 27, 2020
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times"
link to today's digital edition:
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?edid=4cc0a67d-e9fe-4df9-b2dd-d5ba58d0c325
Brazil reports first virus case
Latin America’s sole confirmed patient is a man back from Italy.
AIRPORT employees in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where a resident has tested positive for coronavirus. (Andre Penner Associated Press)
associated press
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s government announced Wednesday that a 61-year-old Brazilian man who traveled to Italy this month is Latin America’s first confirmed coronavirus patient.
“We will now see how this virus behaves in a tropical country in the middle of summer, how its behavior pattern will be,” Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said in a news conference.
The man spent two weeks in northern Italy’s Lombardy region on a work trip, where he contracted the contagious virus, the Health Ministry said.
Authorities had said Tuesday evening that a first laboratory test for the COVID-19 virus had a positive result and were waiting for a second test to confirm.
Since the virus began to spread from China throughout the world , Brazil and other countries in the region have registered dozens of suspected cases, all of which previously had been discarded after tests.
According to the Health Ministry, the man began to show symptoms compatible with the illness, including a dry cough, throat pain and flu symptoms. Lombardy is the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy, and there have been hundreds of confirmed cases there as well as several deaths.
Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein institute, where the man received medical attention, carried out respiratory tests, and the Adolfo Lutz Institute in the same city carried out the subsequent test confirming the virus. The man was in stable condition and in isolation at home in Sao Paulo.
Brazil’s national health agency Anvisa has been working to map all contact the man had with other people in the hospital, at home and on the return flight. On Tuesday, Anvisa requested the flight manifest to investigate other possible cases.
The Health Ministry said that the man received about 30 family members at his home after returning to Sao Paulo on Feb. 21. Those people are under observation, as are passengers from the plane.
“Our healthcare system has... undergone grave respiratory epidemics before,” Mandetta said. “We will get through this situation, investing in science, research and clear information.”
Residents of the biggest city in Latin America were beginning to acknowledge the risks of an epidemic. Thiago Alves, the manager of a drugstore in central Sao Paulo, said he had sold more than 3,000 masks Wednesday.
“We are already short and it isn’t even the beginning of the afternoon,” he said.
Attendance was light at many schools in downtown Sao Paulo and there were few customers in Chinese shops and restaurants.
Sao Paulo’s stock exchange, which had been closed since Friday because of the Carnival holiday, was down 5% shortly after 2 p.m., something that economist André Perfeito attributed to “the global outbreak of coronavirus, not necessarily its arrival here.” Global stock markets had dipped sharply while the Brazilian exchange was closed.
Four years ago, Latin America’s largest country found itself under the microscope as the spreading Zika virus was linked to cases of microcephaly in babies just before the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
As of Wednesday, there were 20 suspected cases of the new coronavirus in Brazil, 12 of which were people who returned from Italy.
excerpt from "The Transcript" (North Adams, Massachusetts)
February 27, 2020
excerpt from the "Los Angeles Times"
link to today's digital edition:
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/desktop/latimes/default.aspx?edid=4cc0a67d-e9fe-4df9-b2dd-d5ba58d0c325
Latin America’s sole confirmed patient is a man back from Italy.
AIRPORT employees in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where a resident has tested positive for coronavirus. (Andre Penner Associated Press)
associated press
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s government announced Wednesday that a 61-year-old Brazilian man who traveled to Italy this month is Latin America’s first confirmed coronavirus patient.
“We will now see how this virus behaves in a tropical country in the middle of summer, how its behavior pattern will be,” Brazilian Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said in a news conference.
The man spent two weeks in northern Italy’s Lombardy region on a work trip, where he contracted the contagious virus, the Health Ministry said.
Authorities had said Tuesday evening that a first laboratory test for the COVID-19 virus had a positive result and were waiting for a second test to confirm.
Since the virus began to spread from China throughout the world , Brazil and other countries in the region have registered dozens of suspected cases, all of which previously had been discarded after tests.
According to the Health Ministry, the man began to show symptoms compatible with the illness, including a dry cough, throat pain and flu symptoms. Lombardy is the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy, and there have been hundreds of confirmed cases there as well as several deaths.
Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein institute, where the man received medical attention, carried out respiratory tests, and the Adolfo Lutz Institute in the same city carried out the subsequent test confirming the virus. The man was in stable condition and in isolation at home in Sao Paulo.
Brazil’s national health agency Anvisa has been working to map all contact the man had with other people in the hospital, at home and on the return flight. On Tuesday, Anvisa requested the flight manifest to investigate other possible cases.
The Health Ministry said that the man received about 30 family members at his home after returning to Sao Paulo on Feb. 21. Those people are under observation, as are passengers from the plane.
“Our healthcare system has... undergone grave respiratory epidemics before,” Mandetta said. “We will get through this situation, investing in science, research and clear information.”
Residents of the biggest city in Latin America were beginning to acknowledge the risks of an epidemic. Thiago Alves, the manager of a drugstore in central Sao Paulo, said he had sold more than 3,000 masks Wednesday.
“We are already short and it isn’t even the beginning of the afternoon,” he said.
Attendance was light at many schools in downtown Sao Paulo and there were few customers in Chinese shops and restaurants.
Sao Paulo’s stock exchange, which had been closed since Friday because of the Carnival holiday, was down 5% shortly after 2 p.m., something that economist André Perfeito attributed to “the global outbreak of coronavirus, not necessarily its arrival here.” Global stock markets had dipped sharply while the Brazilian exchange was closed.
Four years ago, Latin America’s largest country found itself under the microscope as the spreading Zika virus was linked to cases of microcephaly in babies just before the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
As of Wednesday, there were 20 suspected cases of the new coronavirus in Brazil, 12 of which were people who returned from Italy.
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