THE FIRST case of coronavirus has been confirmed in Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency announced the case during a briefing in Belfast.
The infected patient previously travelled from northern Italy via Dublin.
They have demonstrated a presumptive positive result, which is set to be confirmed by a lab in England.
Northern Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride has confirmed authorities are “working rapidly” to identify anyone the patient may have come into contact with in a bid to halt the further spread of the virus.
“Viruses don’t recognise boundaries or borders. We will continue to work to protect the population in Northern Ireland,” Dr McBride said.
"We have been planning for the first positive case in Northern Ireland and have made clear that it was a question of when not if.
"We have robust infection control measures in place which enable us to respond immediately. Our health service is used to managing infections and would assure the public that we are prepared."
Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride has announced Northern Ireland's first presumptive positive result for coronavirus #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/NMOOMtpI8l
— Department of Health (@healthdpt) February 27, 2020
Dr McBride told reporters that a “whole range” of staff are working to halt the spread in Northern Ireland.
“I couldn’t put a figure on it but it is many, many hundreds of individuals working in this space in a very compressed period of time in a situation evolving rapidly,” he said.
Dr McBride stressed that the case was not linked to a school trip to Italy.
The announcement comes as two more people in the UK test positive for the virus.
It brings the total number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 to 16 in the UK.
This case, however, represents the first to occur on the island of Ireland.
