The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 went up to 64 in Romania after five more patients tested positive in Bucharest, local News.ro reported. All of them came in contact with other people infected with the novel coronavirus.

One of the five new patients is a 39-year-old man who came in contact with another person who traveled to Germany.

Another patient, a 53-year-old man, worked with a member of the family of the former Interior Ministry (MAI) employee admitted to the Dimitrie Gerota Hospital. Two other patients, both women, are members of the 53-year-old man's family, while the fifth infected patient was in contact with the 53-year-old man’s family.

Thus, directly or indirectly, the former MAI employee, hospitalized at Dimitrie Gerota Hospital, has already infected 13 people, Digi24 reported.

The former MAI employee was admitted to the Gerota Hospital in Bucharest on March 5 and tested positive for COVID-19 several days later. He didn’t show any symptoms of coronavirus infection when he was admitted to the hospital, and he told the doctors that he hadn’t traveled to any of the countries with coronavirus outbreaks. However, he was later found to have traveled to Israel at the end of February, which he didn’t mention. The hospital was thus closed and all the people in the hospital, from medical personnel to patients had to be tested for COVID-19.

So far, most cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Bucharest – 25 and Hunedoara – 10. The numbers are updated here.

newsroom@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Virgil Simonescu)