France has announced two confirmed cases of the deadly new virus from China, the first reported in Europe, and the country's health minister said new cases were likely to follow.
The two cases were announced by Health Minister Agnes Buzyn. She said both of the sickened people had traveled to China.
The minister said she expects more cases. "We have two cases," she said. "We will probably have other cases."
Buzyn said she believes that one reason why France is the first European country to have confirmed cases is that it has developed a test allowing medics to rapidly diagnose the sickened.
One of people sickened, a 48-year-old man, passed through Wuhan, the epicentre in China for the virus, before travelling to France on Wednesday, the minister said. That person is hospitalised in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.
The other person is hospitalised in Paris. The minister said that that person also travelled to China but that she has little other information about the case. It was confirmed shortly before she spoke at a news conference.
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The Bordeaux patient was in contact with about 10 people before he was taken into care, the minister said. French authorities are seeking to contact them.
The minister urged people who suspect they've sickened to call emergency services and to stay at home to avoid spreading the virus.
The number of confirmed cases around the world has climbed sharply to more than 850, the bulk of them in China. There have been at least 25 deaths, all of them in China.
The vast majority of cases have been in and around Wuhan or involved people who visited the city or had personal connections to those infected.
Fewer than two dozen cases in all have been confirmed outside mainland China, in Hong Kong, Macao, the US, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The US reported its second case, involving a Chicago woman in her 60s who was hospitalized after returning from China. She was reported to be doing well.
