KIEV, March 3 – Ukraine has its first confirmed coronavirus case, Ihor Kuzin, the acting head of the Health Ministry’s public health centre, told Reuters today.

The man was hospitalised on Saturday in the western city of Chernivtsi. He had travelled to Ukraine from Italy via Romania, Kuzin said.

The man was in a stable condition and his wife has put herself in self-isolation at home, Deputy Health Minister Viktor Lyashko told reporters at a subsequent briefing.

"Yesterday, I told you that we had four suspected cases,” Lyashko said. "Today, one of those cases has been confirmed.”

The coronavirus appears to now be spreading faster outside China than within, and airports in hard-hit countries were ramping up screening of travellers.

In February, Ukraine evacuated citizens from China’s Hubei province, sparking clashes between police and protesters outside a sanatorium where the evacuees were put in mandatory quarantine. — Reuters