ROME/PARIS • Two more people have died in Italy from the coronavirus, bringing the death toll from the worst outbreak of the disease yet seen in Europe to 14, the Civil Protection agency said in a statement yesterday.
The number of confirmed cases has risen to 528 from the 420 announced on Wednesday, the vast majority in northern Italy.
A rash of countries had their first cases in recent days, the latest being Denmark, with a man back from a ski holiday in Italy, and Estonia, with someone returning from Iran. Meanwhile, the Greek authorities announced yesterday that the number of cases there had risen to three.
French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that France was preparing for a jump in the number of coronavirus cases, adding that "we are going to have to deal with it as best we can."
"We are facing a crisis, an epidemic that is coming," he said while visiting staff at the La Pitie-Salpetriere hospital in Paris, where the first French person carrying the coronavirus died on Tuesday.
"You had a case here... I know this affected many of your teams," Mr Macron said, pledging to address the crisis truthfully so that measures can be taken calmly.
France has reported 18 cases so far and two deaths, including an 80-year-old Chinese tourist who was the first casualty of the virus reported outside Asia.
The second was a 60-year-old teacher, a case that has worried officials because he had not travelled to an outbreak hot spot.
In Britain, two more coronavirus cases were confirmed, bringing the total there to 15, England's chief medical officer said yesterday.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said the country is at the beginning of a coronavirus epidemic after new cases sprung up that can no longer be traced to the virus' original source in China, he said on Wednesday.
A total of five new coronavirus cases in the west and south of Germany - taking the country's total to around 20 - meant the disease appeared to be moving to a new phase, Mr Spahn told a news conference, urging the health authorities and employers to review their pandemic planning.
"The infection chains are partially no longer trackable, and that is a new thing," he said.
In Spain, the authorities said yesterday that they were investigating the first suspected cases of local coronavirus transmission in the country. All of the 12 other cases of coronavirus currently being treated in Spain involve people who had travelled from Italy.
Meanwhile, European Union government experts have agreed that blocking cross-border movement within the bloc of people with coronavirus symptoms would be counterproductive and that quarantine was the preferred option, EU officials said yesterday.
European states which are members of the open-border Schengen area have stepped up planning over measures to contain the coronavirus. So far, EU and Schengen states have no intention to introduce border checks to tackle the epidemic, a spokesman for the EU Commission told reporters.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
