Chilean writer Luis Sepúlveda, who lives in northern Spain, has contracted the new coronavirus, health officials from Portugal announced on Sunday.
The 70-year-old author felt the first symptoms on February 25 when he had already returned to Asturias, said the Portuguese General Directorate of Health, informed by his Spanish counterpart because the writer had stayed in northern Portugal from February 18 to 23 to participate in a literary festival.
Read also: Luis Sepúlveda, man-orchestra and committed author
The Asturias regional government announced on Saturday that it had detected a first case of coronavirus in a 70-year-old man, but did not identify it.
The patient is stable. His wife, who also has symptoms, is being tested.
Regional Government of Asturias“ The patient is stable. His wife, a 66-year-old woman who also has symptoms, is being tested, "he said, adding that the couple had been admitted to the Central University Hospital of Asturias.
Sunday, the general direction of Portuguese health called on all the people having been in “ close contact ” with Luis Sepúlveda, who took part in the festival “ Correntes d'Escritas ” organized near Porto, to come forward to his services.
73 cases in Spain
Portugal has so far recorded no confirmed cases of infection with the new coronavirus, while neighboring Spain has at this stage 73 cases since the start of the epidemic.
For almost thirty years, the name of Luis Sepúlveda has been steadfastly attached to his short story, The Old Man who read romance novels . A success that continues today, with millions of readers in forty countries.
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