New French health minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday there is a “credible risk” China’s coronavirus outbreak could turn into a pandemic, spreading across the world.
“This is both a working assumption and a credible risk,” Veran told France Info radio.
He said France was ready to deal with all the possibilities and its health system was sufficiently robust and well-equipped.
Four patients who tested positive for the virus remained in hospital in France, he added. An 80-year-old Chinese tourist died from the coronavirus in France last week, the first fatality in Europe.
The death toll in China has climbed to 1,868.
According to the World Health Organization, a pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease.
On Monday, the head of the WHO’s emergencies program, Dr. Mike Ryan, said when asked whether the outbreak was a pandemic: “The real issue is whether we are seeing efficient community transmission outside of China and at the present time we are not observing that.”
-
Cambodia PM defends ship docking despite coronavirus diagnosis
Cambodia’s strongman premier defended on Tuesday his decision to allow a US cruise ship to dock despite at least one passenger later being ... World News -
China says death toll due to coronavirus epidemic jumps past 1,800
The death toll from China’s new coronavirus epidemic jumped past 1,800 on Tuesday after 93 more people died in Hubei province, the hard-hit ... World News -
Head of hospital in China’s virus-hit Wuhan dies of coronavirus
The head of a leading hospital in China’s central city of Wuhan, the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease on Tuesday, state ... World News