Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday a second case of coronavirus was confirmed in a woman who entered the country on the same flight from Tehran that carried the first case.

"A second laboratory-confirmed case of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 was recorded," it said.

The ministry said the patient was a who had been visiting religious sites in Iran and returned to Lebanon on February 20.

The authorities had said when announcing the first case last week that two other suspected cases were being investigated.

The woman infected with the second case was hospitalised on Monday, the ministry said, adding that her condition was stable.

A week after Tehran announced its first two deaths from the virus, the in Iran has climbed to 19 and the country is scrambling to contain what is the deadliest outbreak outside China.

The worldwide death toll is now at more than 2,700, while the number of infections has topped 80,000, although the number of new cases in China, where the virus was first reported late last year, is falling.