ATHENS – As a tenth case of the Coronavirus, now called COVID-19 was confirmed, Greece’s Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias and German health chief Jens Spahn spoke on the phone about how European Union countries can better coordinate a cross-border strategy to contain it.

The call was made as EU health ministers held an extraordinary council meeting, state Greece’s state-run Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA) said as the government reported a Greek woman as the tenth case. She had recently traveled to Israel and Egypt with the man diagnosed as the ninth case of the new coronavirus to Israel and Egypt, authorities said.

The patient was transferred to an isolation unit at a hospital of Patras, western Greece, the country’s third-largest city where ferries from Italy, the hardest-hit country in the EU, regularly dock, with teams of Greek health specialists there advising travelers on precautions to protect themselves.

Schools, theaters and archaeological sites in the prefectures of Achaia, Ilia and Zakynthos will shut down for 48 hours, from March 5 through March 6, Health Ministry authorities said in another action.

Infectious disease specialist Sotiris Tsiodras announced on behalf of the ministry that the measures banned large gatherings of people, including at public and private schools of all levels, theaters, sports and art events, archaeological sites as well as museums.