Paris (AFP)
An 80-year-old Chinese tourist infected with the new coronavirus and hospitalized in Paris since the end of January died Friday evening, French Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn announced on Saturday.
The death is "the first outside Asia, the first in Europe," she said at a press conference.
Only three deaths have so far been recorded outside mainland China: the Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.
"I was informed last night" of this death, said Agnès Buzyn. The condition of this patient, hospitalized at Bichat Hospital in Paris, "had rapidly deteriorated and he had been in critical condition for several days".
Six patients out of the eleven confirmed cases of infection in France remain hospitalized without their state of health causing concern, including the five British infected in the Alps, while four are cured, she added.
The epidemic of viral pneumonia called Covid19, detected in China in December in Hubei province, infected more than 66,000 people and killed more than 1,500 in the country.
Outside mainland China, nearly 600 cases of contamination have been confirmed in around thirty countries and territories, including a first announced on Friday on the African continent.
© 2020 AFP