Wuhan (China) (AFP)

"It is not a heroic act": France evacuates its nationals from Wuhan, but a French doctor refuses to give in to panic and makes it a point to stay in China despite the epidemic of coronavirus.

When he receives AFP outside his home in the megalopolis from which the virus has spread, Doctor Philippe Klein laughs at his fogged glasses: "Can I remove my mask during the interview?"

The epidemic of viral pneumonia has already claimed more people than SARS and 170 deaths have been recorded in China, almost all in Wuhan and its region, where the wearing of protective masks is compulsory.

The city has been sealed off for a week in an attempt to stop the contagion, but the 55-year-old doctor remains calm.

When 11 million people in the metropolis are confined to their homes for fear of being contaminated and that concern is growing in the rest of the world, Dr. Klein is not a candidate for repatriation.

"It is a thoughtful act", specifies in a calm tone the one who runs an international clinic in Wuhan and who considers himself "more useful here" to help the French community in the city.

Some 500 French people are registered at the consulate in Wuhan, a city where car manufacturers PSA and Renault have factories and where universities have exchange programs with France.

- "Virus tamer" -

Like Dr. Klein, not everyone made the choice to leave, for family or professional reasons or simply because they refuse to spend 14 days in quarantine on their arrival in Paris, the maximum period of presumed incubation.

The doctor, installed in China for six years, nevertheless advises "all French people to leave Wuhan" because Chinese hospitals, currently mobilized against the coronavirus epidemic, could not welcome them in the event of a health problem, however mild -he.

On the other hand, "I will stay until there are no more French people", assures AFP this father of four children, while brushing aside the idea of ​​carrying out a "heroic act". "My job here is to help foreigners", some of whom may be anxious about the scale of the epidemic, said the native of Metz, in eastern France.

The doctor however calls to put things into perspective because, according to him, the flu "can kill up to 550,000 people on the planet in one season".

So leave for an epidemic? Very little for Philippe Klein.

Because of his profession, the doctor recalls that he is "permanently in contact with viruses". "Can you imagine a doctor who would be hypochondriac?" He said, smiling.

"I am a virus tamer" and staying in China, it is "as if I was with a lion in its cage".

© 2020 AFP