Twenty-three new cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Montenegro in the last 24 hours, bringing their total to 197, the country's Public Health Institute said in a statement on Saturday.

Since the first case was registered in the country on 17 March, two infected persons have died and one has recovered. “A majority of newly-infected people are contacts of previously registered cases,” the statement said.

The director of the Public Health Institute, Boban Mugosa, said that one funeral ceremony alone had resulted in 40 infections, adding that a religious gathering in a suburb of the capital Podgorica had become a new hotspot of the disease.

Police regularly process all people found to be in violation of the government measures to contain the spread of the virus and report their arrests in the media.

In Podgorica on Friday evening, two persons were taken into police custody for visiting a friend of theirs, while in Budva six persons were detained after police found them playing cards in a hotel.

A crime of disobeying rules for containing the coronavirus epidemic carries a sentence of one year’s imprisonment.