PanARMENIAN.Net - Several European countries have announced their first coronavirus cases, with all appearing to be linked to the growing outbreak in Italy, the BBC reports.

Austria, Croatia and Switzerland said the cases involved people who had been to Italy, as did Algeria in Africa.

The first positive virus test has been recorded in Latin America - a Brazilian resident just returned from Italy.

Italy has in recent days become Europe's worst-affected country, with more than 300 cases and 11 deaths.

But its neighbours have decided closing borders would be 'disproportionate'.

Health ministers from France, Germany, Italy and the EU Commission committed to keeping frontiers open at a meeting on Tuesday, February 25, as new cases of the virus emerged throughout Europe and in central and southern Italy.

In Austria, a young Italian couple who live in Innsbruck in the Tyrol were confirmed to have the virus. One of the pair worked at a hotel, which has been put in lockdown. The couple's home is also sealed off.

Switzerland said a man in his seventies living in Ticino, bordering Italy, had been infected in the city of Milan on 15 February and was now in isolation A man in Croatia who recently returned from Italy became the first confirmed patient in the Balkans.

In Spain's Tenerife, up to 1,000 guests were locked down in a hotel after an Italian doctor and his wife tested positive for the virus.

Spain reported its first case on the mainland, involving a woman in Barcelona who had been to northern Italy.

France and Germany also reported new cases involving people who had recently been to northern Italy.