Carnival goes on despite Brazil's first virus case

Carnival celebrations continued in Brazil on Wednesday, even after the government confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus.

Thousands attended carnival street parties in Rio de Janeiro amid the announcement that a 61-year-old Brazilian man who traveled to Italy this month is Latin America's first confirmed case of the virus.

Amanda Pereira, a 37-year-old resident who attended one of the carnivals with her daughter, said she did not expect the virus to reach Brazil so quickly.

"I worry a lot because my daughters have breathings problems, so we stay alert," she said.

Meanwhile others like resident Vanessa Ferreira said they were not worried.

"It was the same during the Olympics (about the Zika virus outbreak), everybody talking about it but nothing happens, thanks God," she said.

The authorities said that their main concern was not with crowds attending the carnival but with the people going out of the country that could be infected abroad.

"Our concern was always about people going out from Brazil because here, people are in a balanced biome. There is already communication and a volume of antibodies for our ecosystem," said Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta during a news conference.

Since the virus began to spread throughout the world from China, Brazil and other countries in the region have registered dozens of suspected cases, all of which previously had been discarded following tests.

"We will now see how this virus behaves in a tropical country in the middle of summer, how its behavior pattern will be," Mandetta told journalists.

According to the Health Ministry, the man infected began to show symptoms compatible with the illness, such as a dry cough, throat pain and flu symptoms after arriving to the country from Lombardy, the epicenter of the outbreak in Italy.

Sao Paulo's Albert Einstein Institute, where the man received medical attention, carried out respiratory tests, and the Adolfo Lutz Institute in the same city carried out the subsequent test confirming the virus.

The man was in stable condition and in isolation at home in Sao Paulo.

Brazil's national health agency Anvisa has been working to map all contact the man had with others, and on Tuesday requested the manifest of the flight he took to investigate other possible cases.

The Health Ministry said that the man received some 30 family members at his home after returning to Sao Paulo on February 21.

Those people are under observation, as are with passengers from the plane.