A Tourist has died in Paris from the coronavirus – the first person to be killed by the deadly bug in Europe.
The 80-year-old Chinese man died after spending two weeks in intensive care in the French capital – bringing the grisly death toll to 1,527.
French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn confirmed he had passed away this morning – and revealed the man’s daughter had also been treated.
Tourist hotspot France has so far recorded 11 cases of the virus out the current worldwide total of 67,000.
The man arrived in France on January 16 from Hubei – China’s most affected province and home to epicentre Wuhan.
His condition “deteriorated rapidly” and he was left fighting for his life in Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital in the north of Paris on January 25.
The man’s daughter is due to be released soon, Ms Buzyn confirmed.
She added: “This is the first death from the Coronavirus outside Asia, the first death in Europe.”
Paris is home to 2.1million people and last year overtook London to become the most popular tourist city in Europe.
It comes as an expert warned the deadly bug has the “potential” to kill 400,000 Brits if it sweeps across the nation.
Professor Neil Ferguson said the figure is “not absurd” and the deadly disease “concerns” him more than any other illness he has worked on.
Experts have claimed that up to 60 per cent of the world could contract coronavirus – a figure that could also be applicable to Britain.
Out of the infected population it is estimated that 1 per cent could die, which in the UK’s case would be hundreds of thousands of people.
Professor Ferguson, from the School of Public Health, Imperial College London, told Channel 4 this number is “not absurd”.
He added: “I would much prefer to be accused of overreacting than under reacting.
“This virus is the one which probably concerns me the most out of everything I’ve worked on.”
There has been nine confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK with the latest patient taking herself to an A&E in an Uber.
As of Friday, a total of 2,964 people have been tested in the UK, of which 2,955 were confirmed negative.
NHS chief executive Sir Simon Stevens said on Thursday that many more people in the UK may need to self-isolate to contain the illness, which has been officially named Covid-19.
This morning it was revealed two Labour MPs have self-isolated over coronavirus fears after going to a London bus conference attended by an infected patient.
MPs IN ISOLATION
Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds NW, tweeted earlier today he was being tested as one of 250 people who may have come into contact with the killer bug.
The infected person is said to have visited the UK Bus Summit in Westminster on February 6 where Boris Johnson’s Buses Minister, Baroness Vere of Norbiton, was star speaker.
Mr Sobel wrote on Twitter: “Whilst I have been informed that I am at very low risk, I have called 111 to be formally assessed.”
And another Labour MP who went to the conference, Lillian Greenwood, today said she is cancelling all her public engagements and is at home to be “extra cautious”.
Credit: The Sun
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