Shropshire Star

Coronavirus patient dies in Paris hospital

He was among three new cases of the virus confirmed in France on Wednesday.

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Man in hazmat suit

A 60-year-old Frenchman has died of coronavirus in a Paris hospital, the second virus-related death in France.

The head of France’s national health service, Jerome Salomon, confirmed the death on Wednesday – but did not say where the man contracted the virus or provide any other details.

The man was among three new cases of the virus announced in France on Wednesday.

One of the others is a 36-year-old man who had made repeated trips to the Italian virus-hit region of Lombardy, but he does not have any severe symptoms.

HEALTH Coronavirus
(PA Graphics)

Mr Salomon said the third case is a Frenchman in the northern city of Amiens who is in intensive care. An investigation is under way into where and how he contracted the virus.

France is stepping up restrictions on people who have travelled from neighbouring Italy after a new outbreak of the virus there.

France has reported 17 cases of the virus, including two deaths. The first death was an 80-year-old tourist from China.

Woman in facemarsk
A woman wears a face mask while on the subway in Milan, Italy, where a new outbreak of coronavirus has emerged (Antonio Calanni/AP)

Meanwhile, authorities in western Germany said on Wednesday that a man who contracted Covid-19 is in a critical condition and has been taken to a specialist hospital in Dusseldorf.

The health ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia state said the man was first taken to hospital on Monday with serious pneumonia in the town of Erkelenz near the Dutch border.

He was then diagnosed with the virus and isolated in an intensive care unit before being transported to Dusseldorf’s University Hospital. The man’s wife was also isolated on suspicion of contracting the virus after showing symptoms.

German news agencies reported that the man was in his 40s and had a pre-existing condition.

Coronavirus patient
Medical staff carry a coronavirus patient into a hospital in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany (Guido Kirchner/dpa via AP)

Stephan Pusch, who heads the district administration in Heinsberg, where Erkelenz is located, said on Wednesday that schools and nurseries in the area would remain shut on Wednesday. He urged people who display symptoms of illness to stay at home and contact their doctors by phone.

In Austria, authorities have placed an apartment complex in the southern town of Bad Kleinkirchheim under quarantine after a 56-year-old woman from Italy died overnight.

Kaernten state officials said tests are being conducted to determine whether the woman, from the town of Friaul in northern Italy, had the virus. Other residents of the apartment complex are also being tested.

Austria, Switzerland and Croatia on Tuesday reported their first cases of the virus, all involving people who had recently come from Italy.

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