France confirms first death in Europe from coronavirus

A Chinese tourist in France has become the first person to die from the coronavirus outside Asia.

The 80-year-old man from Hubei province had been in quarantine in hospital in Paris since January 25. But yesterday it was confirmed he had died of a lung infection caused by the deadly virus. His daughter, who was also infected, is making a good recovery.

Five of the 11 coronavirus cases in France are British nationals who became infected at a ski chalet in the Alps. Yesterday French Health Minister Agnès Buzyn said the elderly holidaymaker had been in a critical condition in the Bichat hospital in northern Paris. He had arrived in France on January 16 from the Chinese province at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak.

A team of experts from the World Health Organisation began a mission this weekend to assess the situation in China. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “Particular attention will be paid to understanding the transmission, the severity of the disease and the impact of ongoing response measures.”

In numbers

Coronavirus has now claimed the lives of 1,527 people.

All but four were in China, with France, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines each recording a single fatality.

A total of 67,192 cases have been confirmed in 29 countries and territories.

Nine people in England have contracted the virus, five of them in Brighton. Only one is still being treated in hospital as eight have recovered and been discharged.

Scotland has so far seen no cases from the 224 people tested.

In the UK, 2,992 people have undergone tests, of which 2,983 were confirmed negative and nine positive.

Experts fear that 60% of the global population could catch coronavirus if it’s spread cannot be controlled.

Even if the death rate among those infected was as low as 1% it could then claim 45 million lives worldwide. A public health emergency of international concern has been declared by WHO, which prompted the four UK Chief Medical Officers to raise the UK risk level from low to moderate.

Concerns have also been raised over whether the NHS could cope with a major escalation in the number of cases. A survey of 500 frontline health workers revealed that 96% did not believe the NHS was ready to deal with a major outbreak.

The research commissioned by Channel 4 also found 88% of respondents thought there are not adequate facilities to handle large numbers of suspected coronavirus patients.

Health officials at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will now be testing people at home if they develop symptoms.

A testing kit also had to be flown to a North Sea platform after a crew member who had just returned from holiday in Thailand fell ill. The man has been placed in isolation from his colleagues on the Tern Alpha platform off Shetland.

Hundreds of American holidaymakers are also being evacuated from a quarantined cruise liner in Japan. The US government has chartered a plane to repatriate around 380 passengers from the Diamond Princess. They will have to undergo health checks before boarding the flight from Tokyo to an air force base in California.

More than 200 people from the ship have caught the virus.