Second case of coronavirus infection in Croatia has been confirmed in Zagreb on Wednesday morning, the country's health ministry said. As of Wednesday morning, three more people suspected of having the coronavirus have been put into quarantine at the Fran Mihaljevic hospital in Zagreb and are awaiting test results.

The new case of infection is in a young man who is a brother of the first confirmed case, a 25-year-old man who had tested positive on Tuesday after showing mild symptoms of this disease.The first confirmed patient had recently returned from a trip to Milan in northern Italy, where he is thought to have picked up the virus, and was placed in quarantine at the Fran Mihaljevic hospital in Zagreb on Tuesday.

After confirming the infection, health authorities said they would focus on tracking down and testing everyone patient zero had been in contact. According to local media, his girlfriend tested negative on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday morning, three more people suspected of contracting the coronavirus are quarantined at the Fran Mihaljevic hospital and are awaiting testing results, expected to be released to the public later in the day.

‘We are fully prepared’

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said that Croatia is prepared to take any measure necessary to contain the coronavirus, including coordinating with the Italian government.

“As the virus has spread across the world, Croatia raised preparedness levels, our crisis management team has experienced staff, and I expect them to engage fully. The message to the public is that all the relevant services are fully prepared,” Prime Minister Plenkovic said.

On Tuesday, Croatia's Health Minister, Vili Beros attended a meeting in Rome hosted by Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza, with their counterparts from France, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Austria.

Beros told reporters after the meeting that the ministers agreed that there would be no border closures due to the outbreak, as it “would not yield adequate results,” and that these six countries would standardise travel information and protocols and exchange information on the outbreak.

Croatia's foreign ministry issued a travel advisory on Tuesday, recommending caution when travelling to Italy and its regions of Lombardia, Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Piemonte, and Lazio. On Monday, the country's education ministry told all elementary and middle schools to cancel trips to Italy for at least a month.

Italy hardest-hit European country

In neighbouring Bosnia, three Chinese tourists who showed signs of a possible infection had been admitted to a Sarajevo hospital, before testing negative on Tuesday. In Slovenia, 44 suspected cases have been identified, but all tested negative, the country's health ministry tweeted on Tuesday afternoon.

Also on Tuesday, first two cases have been confirmed in Austria, both in persons who had recently spent time in the north of Italy, and both have been quarantined at a hospital in the city of in Innsbruck.

According to an interactive map by Johns Hopkins University which tracks the outbreak in real time, there have been 80,000 confirmed cases globally since it began in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year. The total figure includes nearly 28,000 recoveries and about 2,700 deaths from the disease.

The hardest hit European country so far is Italy, which by Tuesday reported 322 confirmed cases and 11 deaths, most of them located in the northern part of the country.

This is an ongoing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.