Mexico confirms first cases of coronavirus linked to Italy travel

Mexican authorities said on Friday they have confirmed the first cases of coronavirus in Mexico, in what are among the few confirmed instances in Latin America.

A man who had been in Italy, and showed positive in an initial test in Mexico City, went through a second test that turned up positive results early on Friday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez told reporters. The man is in isolation, he added.

His case is connected to a second confirmed case in the northern state of Sinaloa, Lopez-Gatell added. "Due to the epidemiological association with the other case, it is confirmed," he told a regular news conference.