The 11 European countries which have confirmed coronavirus in the last week

Will Taylor
·News Reporter
Updated ·2 min read
An Italian tourist, at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel, results positive to the Coronavirus. About 1000 people have been quarantined, isolating in the hotel. (Photo by Davide Di Lalla/Pacific Press/Sipa USA)
Police at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in Tenerife, where more than 160 Britons are quarantined (Pacific Press/Sipa USA)

A series of European countries have announced their first coronavirus cases in the past week as the illness continues to spread.

A total of 11 European states said they had become affected by it, with Greece, Denmark and Spain all confirming cases in the last seven days.

They are joined by Austria, Estonia, Switzerland, Croatia, Norway, Romania, Georgia and North Macedonia, which all announced the virus had reached their territories this week.

Six of those countries confirmed the cases involved people who had travel links to Italy, which is trying to stop the spread of the outbreak in the north of the country.

People wear antivirus masks to protect themselves from Coronavirus infection in Rome in St. Peter's Square and along Via della Conciliazione, the day of the beginning of Lent (Photo by Matteo Nardone/Pacific Press/Sipa USA)
People wear antivirus masks to protect themselves from coronavirus infection in St Peter's Square, Rome (Pacific Press/Sipa USA)
European countries with coronavirus as of this morning. (PA Images)
European countries with coronavirus as of this morning. (PA Images)

For the first time, the number of new cases reported outside of China – the epicentre of the virus – has exceeded new cases reported by Beijing, Reuters has reported.

In the UK, two more people tested positive for coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, and have been transferred to specialist NHS facilities.

One contracted it in Italy while the other got it in Tenerife.

The latter is the parent of a child at Burbage Primary School in Buxton, Derbyshire, which shut following the positive test and is due to be deep cleaned.

Burbage Primary School in Leicestershire, which has been closed due to a "confirmed case of coronavirus amongst our parent population".
Burbage Primary School in Leicestershire, which has been closed due to a "confirmed case of coronavirus amongst our parent population" (PA)

Professor Rowland Kao, chairman of veterinary epidemiology and data science at the University of Edinburgh, said the UK can expect more cases.

“We already have evidence of onward transmission occurring outside of China and so these two cases – associated with situations with high levels of infections – are not surprising,” he said.

“This occurrence should therefore already be well within the scope of the current approach to control.

“It does highlight that we should continue to expect more cases without direct association with China, and therefore, despite evidence of the epidemic tailing off in China, a need for continued vigilance with appropriate control measures for some time.”

A man walks next the swimming pool of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, in the Canary Island of Tenerife, Spain, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2020. Spanish officials say a tourist hotel on the Canary Island of Tenerife has been placed in quarantine after an Italian doctor staying there tested positive for the COVID-19 virus and Spanish news media says some 1,000 tourists staying at the complex are not allowed to leave. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)
A man walks next the swimming pool of the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in La Caleta, Tenerife (AP)

Meanwhile, 168 Britons are confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife after four guests there were diagnosed with coronavirus.

In total, 20 countries announced the virus had reached their borders over the past week.

Brazil, Lebanon, Israel, Algeria, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Pakistan are the non-European countries with recently-confirmed cases.