2,100 coronavirus cases in 18 EU member states

On Monday, Portugal registered its first coronavirus cases

By REUTERS
Tourists wear protective masks in Saint Mark's Square in Venice as Italy battles a coronavirus outbreak, Venice, Italy, February 27, 2020 (photo credit: REUTERS/MANUEL SILVESTRI)
Tourists wear protective masks in Saint Mark's Square in Venice as Italy battles a coronavirus outbreak, Venice, Italy, February 27, 2020
(photo credit: REUTERS/MANUEL SILVESTRI)
The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday the EU's disease prevention agency had raised its assessment of coronavirus risks in the bloc to high, as the outbreak spread to most EU states.
"The ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) has announced today that the risk level has risen from moderate to high for people in the European Union. In other words, the virus continues to spread," she told a news conference in Brussels.
Health commissioner Stella Kyriakides said 2,100 cases of coronavirus were confirmed in 18 of the 27 EU states, and 38 EU citizens had died because of the disease.
On Monday, Portugal registered its first two cases of the new coronavirus on Monday, SIC television channel reported.
It said one case was discovered in a man who had recently travelled to Italy and another one in a man who had returned from Spain. Both were taken to hospital in Porto.
In another European Union country, Germany, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has risen to 150 on Monday from 129 on Sunday, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control said.
More than half of the cases, 86, are in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, where several schools and daycare centers will be closed on Monday to try to prevent the spread of the virus after staff members tested positive.
Elsewhere in Europe, in Iceland, the first three cases of people infected with coronavirus have been confirmed, the country's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management said in a statement late on Sunday.
The first patient was diagnosed on Friday while two other patients were confirmed during the weekend. All three patients had spent time on holiday in northern Italy, authorities said.