France to close two schools near ski resort after coronavirus cases

Two schools near a French ski resort where five Britons have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus will be shut next week as authorities try to determine with whom those infected had been in contact, a regional health official said.

Eleven Britons, including the five who tested positive for the virus, are being examined in local hospitals.

The group of 11 includes a nine-year-old child who recently spent time in a school in Contamines - a mountain village of which he was a also resident - as well as in another establishment where he attended French lessons, regional health official Jean-Yves Grall told a televised news conference.

There were three children in all among the group of 11, and one has contracted the virus, Grall said.

It was not immediately clear whether the nine-year-old in question had tested positive.