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Five Britons contract coronavirus in French ski resort


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Five Britons contract coronavirus in French ski resort

By Marine Pennetier

 

2020-02-08T164909Z_1_LYNXMPEG170FE_RTROPTP_4_HEALTH-CHINA-FRANCE.JPG

A general view shows the French Alpine resort of Les Contamines-Montjoie, France, where five British nationals including a child have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, after staying in the same ski chalet with a person who had been in Singapore, February 8, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

 

PARIS (Reuters) - Five British nationals including a child have been diagnosed with the new coronavirus at a French mountain village and health officials said they were trying to determine who else the group came into contact with, including at local schools.

 

In total a group of 11 people, including the five who have tested positive, have been hospitalised and are being examined, after sharing lodgings in late January with a British man believed to have contracted the virus in Singapore, the health ministry said.

 

The group was spread over two apartments in a chalet in the Alpine village of Contamines-Montjoie, which is also ski resort.

 

Authorities said that three of the 11 were children - including the one who has tested positive for the virus - and had spent time in a school in the village, where they were residents.

 

That school and another in the area that provided French lessons would be temporarily closed next week, regional health official Jean-Yves Grall said.

 

"As of last night we have started investigating the situation to determine who (the group of 11) had been in contact with," Grall told a news conference, adding that they were looking at situations where people had been in very close proximity for a prolonged period of time.

 

The five newly infected with the virus are not in a serious condition, he added.

 

Contamines-Montjoie is close to the Swiss city of Geneva and the Mont Blanc peak.

 

The cases coincide with one of the busiest periods of the ski season for resorts in the area, as schools in the Paris region begin mid-term holidays. British schools are also on half-term break later this month.

 

The new cases emerged after authorities began to retrace the recent travels of a British man who has been confirmed by Britain to have contracted the virus in recent days, senior health official Jerome Salomon told an earlier news conference.

 

They had formed "a cluster, a grouping around one original case", Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said, adding they had stayed in the same chalet, described as "isolated".

 

"That original case was brought to our attention last night, it is a British national who had returned from Singapore where he had stayed between January 20 and 23, and he arrived in France on January 24 for four days," Buzyn said.

The people hospitalised are being cared for in the cities of Lyon, Grenoble and Saint-Etienne.

 

BUSINESS CONFERENCE

 

The French government said it had been in touch with Singapore and Britain, adding that Singaporean authorities were looking into a business congress that took place in a hotel there on Jan. 20-23 and was attended by 94 foreigners.

 

The British man now known to be at the origin of the latest group of French cases - the third person in Britain who has tested positive for the illness - had travelled to that meeting, according to health officials in Singapore.

 

As of Saturday, Singapore had 40 cases of the virus.

 

A UK foreign office spokesman said that Britain was seeking information on the new French cases and was ready to offer any support needed.

 

The new cases brought the total number of people infected with the virus in France to 11. The earlier ones include an 80-year-old Chinese man in a serious condition, while the others have shown signs of improvement in recent days, according to medical officials.

 

The epidemic began in Wuhan in China and the vast majority of cases have been in China.

 

(Additional reporting by Alistair Smout in London and Sarah White in Paris; Writing by Sarah White; Editing by David Evans and Frances Kerry)

 

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-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-09

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, car720 said:

Singapore is in the poo.

I agree, so are a lot of other country's, I can't see it not accelerating in Thailand and surrounds. I assume Malaysia will eventually start producing cases too, given the easy travel route between Singapore and KL. Nasty business if you can't get adequate treatment.

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This report is a bit scary in the obvious ease of contamination.. I fear that with Thailand refusing to shut borders we are in for a long slow decline in health matters

Stay well folks,,,, hospitals may be as dangerous as the roads for 6 months

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3 hours ago, Deli said:

When will they finally lock all Chinese borders down ? No one should be allowed outta the country, if not 100 % virus free for sure

As you probably live in a country, where the virus has already spread to, so why don't you jail yourself - to make sure you'll not get the virus and if you have it already, you don't spread it to others. 

 

Easy solution to a silly comment of yours. You wanted to be 100% sure, so there is your solution.

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lives on surfaces for up to 9 days although 4 is more usual .and you need eye cover as the most easy incursions are thru eyes as diaroeah and stomach pains are other symptoms and no  headaches or high temps .thats why so many patients in hospitals became infected

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29 minutes ago, 3NUMBAS said:

lives on surfaces for up to 9 days although 4 is more usual

Where are you getting that from?

 

Quote

 

The viruses [coronaviruses] generally cannot survive for more than a few hours on surfaces outside a human host, but people can pick up a coronavirus from a contaminated surface for a short window of time, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the Center for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a CDC news conference in early 2019. Scientists don't yet know how long the novel coronavirus can survive outside a host.

https://www.livescience.com/what-are-coronaviruses.html

 

 

 

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Thanks, bit of a pain getting around their anti adblocking but got there.

 

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The review found that on average, coronaviruses can live on surfaces for between four and five days, but some could survive for up to nine days outside of the body at room temperature.

“Low temperature and high air humidity further increase their lifespan,” said Kampf.

 

 

Certainly doesn't sound as good as the timelines I'd read previously unfortunately.

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