Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda hit by coronavirus: Portugal

Chilean writer Luis Sepulveda, who lives in northern Spain, has contracted the new coronavirus, according to the health authorities in Portugal where the best-selling author recently visited.

The 70-year-old author started showing symptoms of the virus on February 25 after he had returned to his home in Spain's Asturias region from a literary festival in neighbouring Portugal.

The regional Asturias government announced on Saturday that it had detected the first coronavirus case in the region, without identifying him.

"The patient is stable. His wife, a 66-year-old woman is also displaying the symptoms and is being tested," and both have been admitted to hospital, it added.

The Portuguese authorities called on all those who had been in contact with Sepulveda during last month's Correntes d'Escritas literary festival in Porto to make themselves known.

So far Portugal hasn't registered a single confirmed case of the COVID-19 outbreak while Spain has had 73 cases.

Sepulveda was exiled from Chile in 1975 because of his political activities.

His works, which are known for their simple humour and depictions of life in South America, include "The Old Man Who Read Love Stories" and "The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly".