A 60-year-old man became the first French citizen to die from the new coronavirus on Wednesday night.
Four new deaths were also reported in Iran, the hardest-hit country after China. Greece also confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, the country's health minister said. It is a 38-year-old woman who had traveled to northern Italy, Reuters reports.
The 60-year-old Frenchman died overnight after being taken to a Paris hospital, becoming the second person to die from the novel coronavirus in France, after an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in the country in mid-February.
A total of 17 people have fallen ill with the virus in France.
Iran reports four new deaths from the virus, bringing the total number of deaths in the country to 19, the highest number of deaths from the virus outside of China.,
In China, however, the number of new infections and new deaths from the virus is decreasing.
On Tuesday, 52 people died from the disease, the lowest number in more than three weeks. All the deaths were in Hubei province, the worst-hit province in China. There were also 401 new cases confirmed there, but only five new cases were confirmed in the rest of China.
Three more provinces in China lowered their alert levels as the risk of spread is deemed to be lower. Xinjiang and Sichuan are lowering theirs from one to two on the four-point scale, while Inner Mongolia is lowering its from one to three.
In South Korea, however, the number of cases has increased in recent days. An additional 169 people have been confirmed infected, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to over 1,200.
An American soldier in his 20s became the first of nearly 30,000 American soldiers in South Korea to be infected with the virus on Wednesday. The man has been placed in home quarantine.
In China, 94 people from a flight from Seoul have been quarantined after three Chinese passengers showed symptoms of the virus.
Japan is reporting that about a dozen passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship who had previously tested negative have shown symptoms of the new coronavirus. 45 people who showed ”some symptoms” have been asked to go and get tested by a doctor, said Japan's Health Minister Katsunobu Kato.
Japan has met of harsh criticism for its handling of the situation on the cruise ship, especially after it emerged that passengers who initially tested negative for the virus and were allowed to leave the ship later turned out to be infected.
Algeria announced on Tuesday evening that it had its first case, an Italian man who arrived in the country on February 17 and is now being kept in isolation.
In the US, the CDC changed its tone in its communication about the virus on Tuesday, urging Americans to start preparing for an outbreak. 57 people have so far been infected with the virus in the US.
”It’s no longer a question of if. It’s a question of when and how many people will get infected,” said Anne Schchat, deputy director of the CDC.
About 50 people outside China have died from the new coronavirus, including 11 in Italy. In total, more than 2,700 people have died after contracting the virus.
Source: TT
