Paris (dpa) - France has recorded its first case of coronavirus, a
deadly respiratory infection related to SARS, the French health
ministry said Wednesday.
The patient returned to France from a visit to Saudi Arabia and
the United Arab Emirates and was placed in intensive care in an
isolation ward, the ministry said.
The human coronavirus, or hCoV, was first discovered in 2012 in a
man in Saudi Arabia. Almost all of the 17 cases reported to the World
Health Organization (WHO) as of April 25 had originated in the
Arabian Peninsula.
Coronavirus belongs to the same group as SARS, or severe acute
respiratory syndrome, which 10 years ago killed about 800 people.
The WHO said 11 patients have died of hCoV.
The Pasteur Institute in Paris confirmed the hCoV infection in
France, the ministry said. It said it had launched an immediate
epidemiological investigation.
No other details were released about the French patient.
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