BRUSSELS • A first case of coronavirus has been detected among staff at the Council of the European Union, a spokesman has said, as ministers of the bloc's 27 member states were to hold emergency meetings there.

The spokesman for the council, which hosts ministerial meetings and EU summits and has a staff of 3,000, said on Wednesday that the person, from the information security unit, was infected in Belgium.

EU home affairs ministers gathered in the council building in Brussels later on Wednesday for an extraordinary meeting on the migration crisis at borders with Turkey.

Today, EU health ministers are expected to hold emergency talks in the same building on the response to the coronavirus outbreak.

The spokesman said these meetings would still go ahead, as there were no health risks for attendees.

"There should be no disruption to the work of our institutions," he said, adding that this was in line with World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols.

Earlier on Wednesday, another EU body, the European Defence Agency (EDA), reported a case of coronavirus among its staff.

The official had recently travelled to northern Italy.

An EU official said the two infected individuals had met in recent days, without giving further details.

"The staff member tested positive and is currently at home in self-isolation since symptoms appeared on Saturday evening," EDA said in a statement.

"The individual has reported very light symptoms and not returned to the agency since," it added.

Meanwhile Switzerland reported its first death from the virus yesterday, after a 74-year-old woman who was hospitalised in the western city of Lausanne on Tuesday died overnight.

The woman, who also suffered from a pre-existing chronic illness, had been considered at "high risk" from the virus.

To date, Switzerland has registered 58 confirmed cases of Covid-19 since the disease first surfaced in the country on Feb 25.

Yesterday, Bosnia confirmed its first two cases of the coronavirus - a middle-aged man, who recently visited Italy, and his child.

The Health Minister of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, Mr Alen Seranic, said the man, who returned from Italy late last month, had been confirmed earlier this week as having the coronavirus. He is in a stable condition and is being kept in isolation in hospital in the city of Banja Luka.

"His wife tested negative for coronavirus but his child was found positive last night," Mr Seranic told a news conference in Banja Luka.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE