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MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's assistant health secretary announced Friday that the country now has two confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell said one of the patients is in Mexico City and the other in the northern state of Sinaloa. While a second test is still pending on that case, he said, “We are treating this as confirmed.” Neither is seriously ill.

At least five family contacts of the first patient have been placed in isolation. He said one of the men had contact with someone who had traveled to the northern Italian region where there has been an outbreak.

More: Coronavirus in Texas? Gov. Greg Abbott has plan to prepare for spread of virus

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador appeared to downplay the seriousness of the COVID-19 virus, saying “it isn't even equivalent to flu."

Seasonal flu kills more people because it has infected far more people, but the new virus appears to have a far higher mortality rate.

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Trader Fred DeMarco works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Feb. 28, 2020. Global stock markets are falling further on spreading virus fears.
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Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 27, 2020 in New York City. With concerns growing about how the coronavirus might effect the economy, stocks fell for the fourth straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost almost 1200 points on Thursday.
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Pedestrians walk past an electronic quotation board displaying share prices of the Nikkei 225 Index (C, top) and other global stock markets in Tokyo on Feb. 26, 2020. - Tokyo stocks opened lower on Feb. 26 extending losses on Wall Street, as the coronavirus continued to spread and public officials warned of the increasing likelihood of a pandemic.
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Stocks reflect declines on monitors as people work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Feb. 27, 2020.
 
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Health personnel monitor people wearing face masks as they enter the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Feb. 28, 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. Fearing the spread of Covid-19, a new strain of coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China, the Thai stock market has plunged to its dropped to its lowest since 2014. As Thailand's confirmed cases rises to 40, the country continues to monitor public health through temperature scanning and hand sanitizing stations throughout crowded areas.
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People walk in front of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in Mumbai, India, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. Asian stock markets fell further Friday on spreading virus fears, deepening an global rout after Wall Street endured its biggest one-day drop in nine years.
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A broker watches his screens with the German stock index DAX in background at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 28, 2020.
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Stock trader Gregory Rowe works at the New York Stock Exchange on Feb. 26, 2020. The S&P 500 has lost more than 10% from its record high as worries have built that a fast-spreading new virus will slam economies and corporate profits around the world. That means stocks just went through a ÒcorrectionÓ in the stilted parlance of market watchers.
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A woman wears a sanitary mask as she walks in front of the Italian Stock Exchange in Milan, Italy, Feb. 25, 2020. Civil protection officials on Tuesday reported a large jump of cases in Italy, from 222 to 283.
 
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A man wearing a face mask walks past statues of bulls in Beijing, Feb. 28, 2020. Asian stock markets fell further Friday on spreading virus fears, deepening an global rout after Wall Street endured its biggest one-day drop in nine years.
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Stock prices are monitored at the New York Stock Exchange, Feb. 26, 2020.
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A stock exchange trader sits in the trading room of the exchange, with monitors reflected in her glasses, in Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 26, 2020. The Dax fell to its lowest level since mid-October 2019 during morning trading, as many companies are putting the brakes on their forecasts for future business, many blaming the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
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In the central China city of Wuhan, where the new coronavirus first exploded, 2% to 4% of patients have died, according to the World Health Organization. But in the rest of China, the death rate has been 0.7%. On average, the death rate from seasonal flu is about 0.1%.

a glass with a blue background: In this Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, nurses work at an ICU ward specialised for patients infected by coronavirus in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. The fresh national figures for the disease that emerged in China in December came as the number of viral infections soared mostly in and around the southeastern city of Daegu, where they were linked to a local church and a hospital. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP) © Xiao Yijiu, AP In this Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, photo released by Xinhua News Agency, nurses work at an ICU ward specialised for patients infected by coronavirus in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. The fresh national figures for the disease that emerged in China in December came as the number of viral infections soared mostly in and around the southeastern city of Daegu, where they were linked to a local church and a hospital. (Xiao Yijiu/Xinhua via AP)

“I repeat, according to the available information, it is not something terrible, fatal,” López Obrador said. “There shouldn't be any yellow journalism, or exaggerations, to cause a mass psychosis of fear, of terror.”

Brazil on Wednesday confirmed Latin America's first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in a man who traveled to Italy this month.

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This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Mexico confirms first 2 cases of coronavirus

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