Ireland closes school having close contact with first COVID-19 patient

A secondary school in the eastern part of Ireland will be closed for 14 days after the school is found to have close contact with the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the country, announced the Department of Health on Sunday.

The announcement came one day after the first confirmed COVID-19 case was reported on Saturday night.

"Contact tracing of the confirmed COVID-19 case, in the East of Ireland, has identified and made contact with a secondary school," said the Department of Health in a statement, adding that all pupils and teachers of the school have been treated as close contacts of the confirmed case after risk assessment.

All pupils and teachers of the school have been asked to restrict their movements until the end of the incubation period, it said.

On Saturday night, the Department of Health announced that a man, living in the eastern part of Ireland, was confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus after returning home from a trip to an affected area in northern Italy.