BUCHAREST, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Two teenage girls in Romania were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Saturday, bringing the caseload in the country to 11, authorities announced.
One of the girls, from the western city of Timisoara, was the third student infected at her school. Previously, a 16-year-old boy was infected at home by his uncle, who returned from Italy, before transmitting the virus to two girls at school.
The school has been closed, and the local authorities are expected to announce a suspension of classes for up to 14 days early next week.
The second new case is a 16-year-old girl from the western county of Hunedoara, who traveled on the same plane from Italy with a 40-year-old man who was confirmed infected the day before.
Romania reported the first case of novel coronavirus on Feb. 27 after a 20-year-old Romanian was infected by a visiting Italian. So far, all infected people in Romania can be traced back to Italy.
As of noon Saturday, 16 people are currently in institutional quarantine in Romania nationwide, and 12,927 are monitored at home.
Meanwhile, 3 of the previously infected people have been tested negative and discharged from hospital.
Romania has frequent people exchange with Italy. As of 2019, over 1.2 million Romanian citizens are living in Italy -- the largest Romanian immigrant population in any country, also the largest immigrant group within Italy.
