France has confirmed the first two cases of coronavirus in Europe, Euronews reports.
Agnès Buzyn, France’s health minister, told reporters one case was in Paris and the other Bordeaux.
It’s likely there are other cases in Europe, she added, as she warned people having travelled to China to avoid going to emergency rooms in the case that they have symptoms.
“It’s in emergency rooms in reality that people risk being in contact with others,” Buzyn told reporters.
It comes after China put as many as 36 million people on lockdown across 13 cities after the outbreak of a new respiratory illness.
The death toll stands at 26.
Hundreds of cases have been confirmed in China, with South Korea and Japan both announcing second cases and Singapore two more for a total of three.
Meanwhile, the director-general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the outbreak was not yet a global health emergency.
Ghebreyesus was speaking after WHO’s emergency committee met for a second day on Thursday to debate the epidemic.
