Croatia's permanent representative to the EU, Irena Andrassy, went into self-isolation in Brussels, after coming into "close contact" with an official of the Council of the EU who later tested positive for the coronavirus, her office said on Friday.

According to EU protocol, anyone who has been in contact with a person known to have been infected has to be put into isolation to prevent spread of the disease.

So far there have been two confirmed cases of infection among staff working at EU institutions, one in the European Defence Agency (EDA) earlier this week, and the other in the Council of the EU.

A meeting of EU health ministers convened by Croatia’s Health Minister, Vili Beros, was scheduled for Friday in Brussels to discuss the latest developments with the outbreak.

“Our goal is to exchange opinions about the way the disease is spreading, and the reasons for so many cases in the EU,” Beros said ahead of the meeting. As of Friday, Croatia reported 11 confirmed cases of the disease.

The worst affected country in Europe is Italy, which reported more than 3,800 cases as of Friday, including 148 deaths. The death toll includes 41 deaths reported on Thursday alone. Italy is now the second country in the world in terms of confirmed deaths from the novel coronavirus, behind China with nearly 2,931.

Other countries with more than 100 deaths are Iran and South Korea.

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