This Wednesday 26th February, after the death of a 60-year-old man in Paris, health authorities announced the identification of the 18th case of coronavirus in France.
How was the first Frenchman who died after a coronavirus infection contaminated? An investigation is underway to trace the course of this 60-year-old teacher, who had not travelled to a risk zone.
For now, the toll of the Covid-19 disease in France is two dead (the 60-year-old Frenchman whose death was announced on Wednesday, and an 80-year-old Chinese tourist), eleven healings and four patients still hospitalized.
DIRECT – Coronavirus : après les premiers morts en France, le ministre de la Santé Olivier Véran fait le point sur la situation https://t.co/N5HXhHE24S pic.twitter.com/RN8V4xqNXq
— Brut FR (@brutofficiel) February 26, 2020
18th case identified
This represents 18 people in total, but the discovery of new cases seems to be accelerating. Including the deceased in their sixties, five were announced between Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. No case had been spotted in France since February 15, but in the meantime, the disease has spread to Italy, a border country which is also the most affected in Europe.
“The 17th confirmed case (in France) is a 60-year-old French man who was tested in emergency yesterday at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in a very serious state and who unfortunately died during the night,” announced the ministry’s N.2, Jérôme Salomon, at a press conference in the morning.
An 18th case has been identified, announced Olivier Véra, Wednesday 26th February: it is the wife of a patient hospitalized in Annecy.
He was initially hospitalized in Creil, then said the Hauts-de-France regional health agency.
The Ministry of National Education indicated that it was a teacher from a college in Crépy-en-Valois in Oise. This establishment is part of the academic zones in school vacations since the evening of February 14 and will resume classes on Monday.
En période de crise, il y a des gestes et des réflexes qui se veulent protecteurs. Le repli, les tensions entre voisins ne doivent pas en faire partie.
La solidarité, la transparence, le sens des responsabilités, eux, sont protecteurs : c’est cet esprit qui a prévalu aujourd’hui. pic.twitter.com/1DlU7OUtj9— Olivier Véran (@olivierveran) February 25, 2020
Not stayed in a “risk exposure area”
The deceased teacher had not stayed in a “risk exposure area,” said the director-general of the Hauts-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS).
“The investigation was launched urgently” on this patient, according to Professor Salomon.
One of the two other cases announced on Wednesday is “a 55-year-old French man currently hospitalized in Amiens and who is in a serious clinical situation (…) in intensive care,” said Professor Salomon. He is also from Oise, had not travelled to a risk zone either and had first been hospitalized in Compiègne, according to ARS Hauts-de-France.
The other is “a 36-year-old French man hospitalized in Strasbourg”, who “shows no sign of seriousness”, continued Jérôme Salomon, indicating that this patient was returning from Lombardy, one of the Italian regions affected by the sickness.
“Healing”
The two cases announced Tuesday evening are a 33-year-old French-Chinese woman hospitalized in Paris and a 64-year-old French man back from Lombardy and hospitalized in Annecy, according to the Ministry of Health. Both have “no sign of gravity,” according to Jérôme Salomon.
He had said the day before that the young woman had returned from China on February 7, had reduced her contacts since and had been hospitalized for simple “surveillance”. According to him, she tested negative for the new coronavirus and carried “traces of healing”.
