SANTIAGO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th March, 2020) Chilean authorities confirmed the first case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country, the Chilean Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
"The minister confirmed the first case of the disease in the city of Talca," the ministry said on Twitter.
Talca is located some 160 miles south of the country's capital of Santiago in central Chile.
This is not the first case of the viral disease in Latin America. It was previously found in Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil.
Earlier in the day, the World Health Organization's (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged countries of Latin America, Mesoamerica and the Caribbean to adhere to aggressive containment of the COVID-19 while the number of cases in the region is still low.
