United Kingdom, Russia, Italy… The coronavirus is spreading in Europe

The World Health Organization (WHO) decreed Thursday, January 30, that the epidemic of the new coronavirus constituted "a public health emergency of international scope". In fact, to date, more than 9,800 people have been infected in China by the Wuhan coronavirus since its appearance in December, the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna announced on Friday January 31. One hundred and thirty-two cases have also been reported outside of China, in some twenty countries, but none has been fatal so far.

The toll of the new coronavirus increased on Friday to 213 dead in China and around 10,000 cases of contamination in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong).

On Friday, new cases were identified, especially in the United Kingdom and Russia, while in France, a person is suspected of potentially carrying the virus. The Italian government, meanwhile, declared a state of emergency Friday after two first cases announced the day before.

• In the United Kingdom, the first two confirmed cases

Two cases of infection with the new coronavirus appeared in China have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, the first for this country, health services announced on Friday.

"We can confirm that two patients in England, members of the same family, have tested positive," said England chief medical officer Chris Whitty in a statement released by the Department of Health.

"The patients are treated by specialists from the national health service and we use proven infection control procedures to prevent the virus from spreading again," he added.

He said research was being done to "quickly identify" those who may have come into contact with these patients.

>> Read also: Coronavirus: "Current psychosis is not logical"

The health services did not specify precisely where these cases had been found, or whether the persons concerned had visited China recently.

On Tuesday, the UK asked the British to avoid "non-essential" travel to China. The next day, British Airways suspended all flights to mainland China.

A plane chartered by the United Kingdom to repatriate 110 Britons and other foreign nationals from the Chinese city of Wuhan, from where the new coronavirus spread, landed on Friday in England, found an AFP journalist.

The plane carrying 83 Britons and 27 other foreigners, chartered in cooperation with the Spanish authorities, landed at the Brize Norton air base, about 120 kilometers west of London.

• First two cases in Russia

Russia announced on Friday two first cases of patients of the new coronavirus on its territory, Chinese nationals, and the evacuation of its citizens from several Chinese regions because of the epidemic

According to Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova, quoted by Russian agencies, the two infected people are one in the Tyumen region, in the Urals, and the other in that of Tansbaïkalie, in Eastern Siberia (Far East).

• The state of emergency established in Italy

The Italian government declared on Friday a state of emergency to accelerate the fight against the new coronavirus and avoid a possible contagion, the day after the announcement of the first two cases in Italy in a couple of Chinese tourists.

A state of emergency is often proclaimed on the peninsula, following earthquakes, bad weather or recently floods in Venice, because it provides for an accelerated procedure to mobilize funds and means including civil protection for the implementation place of reception structures.

The proclamation of the state of emergency is not a surprise after the announcement Thursday evening by the head of government Giuseppe Conte of the first two cases of coronavirus in the country and the suspension of all flights "to and from" the China.

The state of emergency procedure is scheduled for six months, according to Italian media.

The infected couple apparently first arrived in Milan and then stayed in Rome when symptoms of the disease appeared on Wednesday. Their hotel room was sealed and they were placed under observation at the Spallanzani hospital in Rome which is the reference establishment for infectious diseases in Italy.

"The patients are in good shape, they are young and it is as if they have the flu. There is no therapy for this infection, it is treated like the flu, they will remain isolated for a few days", Giuseppe Ippolito, scientific director of Spallanzani hospital, said on a radio Friday.

>> Read also: Coronavirus: does China play the transparency card?

The professor made a point of reassuring the Italians who begin to be in the grip of "psychosis".

"The citizens must be calm, because the real risk of contagion exists if the sick people already present the symptoms and as soon as the two tourists had them, we followed the procedures envisaged", he declared.

"We are practically sure that there were no other contagions", stressing that "the virus is not transmitted during incubation, unless 'exceptional exceptions which occur exceptionally'" , he concluded with a touch of humor.

• Another suspected case in France

One of the 180 people repatriated Friday to Istres (Bouches-du-Rhône) from Wuhan, home of the coronavirus epidemic in central China, presented symptoms corresponding to the disease, announced the Minister of Health.

He was transferred to the Marseille hospital in La Timone, said Agnes Buzyn, interviewed by the press at Marignane airport.

The minister hopes that a second repatriation plane will arrive in France on Sunday.

• A vaccine project of the Institut Pasteur

The Institut Pasteur has formed a group responsible for developing a vaccine against the "Wuhan coronavirus" and hopes that it will be available within twenty months, said Friday Christophe d'Enfert, scientific director at the foundation .

"We have developed a platform which in eight months will allow us to obtain an attenuated virus which can be tested on an animal," he said.

While the complete sequencing of the #coronavirus viral genome has just been carried out, the isolation of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus strains detected in France has just been successfully finalized at @ institutpasteur in a very short time. https://t.co/t2933EMd35

"At the end of August, we could enter clinical phases, and if all goes well, have a vaccine available within twenty months."

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