Mexico's health ministry said the country has confirmed three cases of the coronavirus, becoming the second Latin American nation reached by the global outbreak, AFP reported.

The three men — two in Mexico City and one in the northern state of Sinaloa —are all believed to have visited northern Italy, the epicentre of the virus in Europe.

“Probably all three were infected from the same source. All three are imported cases,” Jose Luis Alomia, general director of epidemiology at the Ministry of Health, said at a press conference.