MUNICH (Germany) • A German man who tested positive for the strain of a coronavirus now sweeping China was infected by a colleague, officials said yesterday, in what is believed to be the first human transmission in Europe.
The man had not visited China, but a Chinese colleague who was in Germany last week had "started to feel sick on the flight home on Jan 23", said Mr Andreas Zapf, head of the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety.
The man had attended a training session given by his Chinese colleague on Jan 21 at the office of car parts supplier Webasto in Stockdorf, Bavaria, and tested positive for the virus on Monday evening.
Unlike other patients, the 33-year-old had not recently travelled to China.
He remains in hospital in an iso-lation ward, but Mr Zapf said he was doing well.
The colleague, a Chinese woman, immediately sought medical attention on her return to China and was confirmed to have caught the virus, which has spread rapidly in recent weeks after first emerging in the city of Wuhan, in Hubei province.
The woman had recently returned from visiting her parents in the Wuhan region, said Mr Zapf.
In a statement, Webasto said it had halted all business travel to and from China "for at least the next two weeks".
Health officials are checking about 40 people that the two infected workers had been in contact with recently, including colleagues and family members.
The virus has so far killed more than 100 people and infected over 4,500 - the bulk of them in and around Wuhan.
Cases have also been reported in a string of other countries, including the United States, France, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
