MEXICO CITY — Mexico's assistant health secretary says the country now has two confirmed cases of COVID-19, or coronavirus.

Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Friday that one of the patients is in Mexico City and the other in the northern state of Sinaloa, and neither is seriously ill.

At least five family contacts have been placed in isolation. He said that one of the men had contact with someone who had traveled to the northern Italian region where that country has seen a local outbreak.

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