Covid-19, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Health, Latvia, Medicine

Maija Lazdina, a spokeswoman for Rigas Mikroautobusu Satiksme (RMS) minibus operator, told LETA that RMS used video surveillance footage to detect the passenger who was traveling with his daughter.

The driver of the minibus immediately went to the Latvian Infectious Diseases Center for a coronavirus test. There had been two more passengers in the vehicle, Lazdina said.

"After media broke the news, we realized that he somehow had to get to the city center. We knew the arrival time of his flight and, checking our minibuses running around that time, we detected the passenger," Lazdina said.

RMS operates two minibus routes to the airport - 322 and 341.

As reported, the first case of confirmed novel coronavirus Covid-19 was registered in Estonia on Wednesday evening, and the patient arrived on a bus from Riga, Estonian Social Affairs Minister Tanel Kiik said Thursday morning.

Kiik said the affected individual is an Iranian national resident in Estonia, who had not recently arrived in the country either by plane or by sea, but instead had arrived in Estonia by bus from Riga, Latvia.

Estonian Delfi portal reported that the Iranian citizen arrived in Riga from Iran in transit via Turkey. Turkish Airlines conducts the direct flights from Turkey to Riga and the plane form Istanbul landed in Riga at 11:20 on Wednesday.