Carry-le-Rouet (France) (AFP)
After 14 days of quarantine near Marseille, some 120 people evacuated from Wuhan in China began to be released on Sunday, with the relief of not being contaminated by the new coronavirus, found an AFP journalist.
It is the second wave of returnees in France to be able to leave the Carry-le-Rouet holiday center, which 181 people had already left on Friday.
Around 7:00 am, a shuttle left the center, noted an AFP journalist, and others were to follow it in the morning. In total, 44 people must leave Carry-le-Rouet, according to the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône. They arrived on February 2 in France.
In their plane, 78 other returnees - 19 French and 59 nationals of other countries - had been placed in quarantine in a training center for firefighters in Aix-en-Provence (Ensosp), about thirty kilometers from Marseille. They also had to leave their quarantine site on Sunday.
On the other hand, 35 other people who arrived via London on February 9 will remain confined until February 23 in Aix-en-Provence.
After Sunday's departures, the Carry-le-Rouet holiday center requisitioned for this confinement period will be empty. "Nobody was sick after all, so yes, we are going to clean and apply the disinfection procedures but as on arrival, no more," said Marc Zyltman, chief of the Red Cross organization.
The disease caused by the new coronavirus that appeared in Wuhan, in central China, has killed nearly 1,700 people, including 4 outside mainland China, where more than 68,000 people are infected,
Elsewhere, nearly 600 cases of contamination by the coronavirus epidemic, officially called Covid-19, have been confirmed in thirty countries with the first case reported on Friday in Africa. The first death outside Asia occurred on Friday evening in France, that of a Chinese octogenarian from a city located some 400 km from Wuhan, who arrived in France on January 23.
© 2020 AFP