Briton in French Alps may have spread coronavirus to others across Europe

[webfact]

Briton in French Alps may have spread coronavirus to others across Europe

By Kylie MacLellan and Jessica Jones

 

Passengers from China disembark from a plane at RAF Brize Norton near Oxford, Britain, February 9, 2020. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

 

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) - A British man who contracted the new coronavirus while attending a conference in Singapore may have led to seven other people catching the disease when he stopped off at a chalet in a French mountain village on his way home, health experts said on Sunday.

 

The man, Britain's third case of the virus, stayed for four days in the chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie late last month, under the same roof as a group of British holidaymakers as well as a British family who lived in the village.

 

Five people from that group in the Alpine ski resort, including a child, contracted the coronavirus as a result, French officials said this weekend.

 

The trail does not end there, however. The disease carried by the same man may have spread elsewhere, underlining the challenges health authorities face in containing infections in an era of global air travel.

 

Spanish authorities said on Sunday that a British man had tested positive in Mallorca after coming into contact with an infected person in France.

 

British health officials, meanwhile, said the country had recorded its fourth case of coronavirus, with the person catching the illness from a Briton in France.

 

Senior French health official Jerome Salomon confirmed in a televised statement that the two cases in Britain and Mallorca were linked to the group staying in the chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie.

 

Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at England's University of East Anglia, said of the new virus patient in Britain: "This case is part of the same cluster which is being reported as linked to a British national returning from Singapore."

 

However, more broadly, while the outbreak of the new coronavirus has spread to at least 27 countries and territories, according to a Reuters count, only a tiny fraction of cases - about 330 out of over 37,000 - have been outside mainland China.

 

TRACING CHALET GROUP

Residents of Les Contamines-Montjoie, a few wearing facemasks, lined up on Sunday to get tested for the new coronavirus as authorities sought to contain the spread.

 

French officials said they were tracing all the people who might have been in close contact with the group of 11 Britons exposed to the virus after sharing lodgings in the village.

 

Five of those tested positive, including a nine-year-old child and their father. Two other children - the infected child's siblings - were hospitalized in France for checks, officials added.

 

Their mother had left the country by the time the investigation began and was under observation in a UK hospital, French officials said. It was not clear if she was the latest case to be diagnosed in Britain.

 

Spanish authorities said the British man who had tested positive in Mallorca was one of four members of a family taken into observation on Friday after coming into contact with someone in France who was subsequently diagnosed with the virus.

 

The family appear to have been part of the larger group in the French ski resort, Fernando Simon, director of the Centre of Coordination of Health Emergencies at Spain's Health Ministry, told reporters.

 

However he said he could not confirm this 100% because of respect for the family's privacy.

 

The family returned to Mallorca from France on Jan. 29 and the father started to show light symptoms 24 hours later.

 

Simon said the man was currently "in good health" but was being kept in isolation and authorities were drawing up a list of everyone he may have come into contact with in Mallorca.

 

(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan in London and Jessica Jones in Madrid; Additional reporting by Sarah White in Paris; Editing by Frances Kerry and Pravin Char)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-02-10

Follow Thaivisa on LINE for breaking Thailand news and visa info

[tifino]

48 minutes ago, webfact said:

Spanish authorities said the British man who had tested positive in Mallorca was one of four members of a family taken into observation on Friday after coming into contact with someone in France who was subsequently diagnosed with the virus.

seems strange they are focusing more on the Brit? 

He was simply on the, say,  57th level of the ever expanding tree of infection... why not keep the focus on the French on the '56th' level, as his spread is even wider x3extrapolate than of the Brit 1-3-9-27-81-...-6561- etc etc  

[Salerno]

3 minutes ago, tifino said:

why not keep the focus on the French on the '56th' level

Because it was a Brit on 56th level that brought it back from Singapore and , in the tradition of caring is sharing, passed it onto the rest of them including the other Brit that was diagnosed in Spain after the ski trip.

[smedly]

1 hour ago, Salerno said:

Because it was a Brit on 56th level that brought it back from Singapore and , in the tradition of caring is sharing, passed it onto the rest of them including the other Brit that was diagnosed in Spain after the ski trip.

How many others did the Brit infect during his travels - how many others did the person that infected the Brit come in contact with - this likely spans across 100's of people - remember it all started from a single person somewhere some time possibly weeks ago

[cornishcarlos]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

 

However he said he could not confirm this 100% because of respect for the family's privacy.

 

Surely this is a time when "respect for the family's privacy" should take a back seat to the wider good of the population.

If they named them, then maybe someone reading this who might have been in contact with them, could go get checked....

[smedly]

I am starting to wonder how far back people should be checking, I visited Bangkok on the 2nd Jan and used buses - BTS etc, at that time there was no mention of a virus but I certainly was amongst a lot of people during my visit in what I would call "close contact" but then that was just one day of 40 days since and people in Bangkok do that on a daily hourly basis - but even so

[nobodysfriend]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

The disease carried by the same man may have spread elsewhere, underlining the challenges health authorities face in containing infections in an era of global air travel.

 

Spanish authorities said on Sunday that a British man had tested positive in Mallorca after coming into contact with an infected person in France.

 

It speads very easily from one person ( even not known to be infected ) to another , to another , to another ... be careful !

 

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

"This case is part of the same cluster which is being reported as linked to a British national returning from Singapore."

 

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Les Contamines-Montjoie,

Les  'contamines' , in French that means the ' infected ' . Strange coincidence ...?

[mfd101]

2 hours ago, smedly said:

I am starting to wonder how far back people should be checking, I visited Bangkok on the 2nd Jan and used buses - BTS etc, at that time there was no mention of a virus but I certainly was amongst a lot of people during my visit in what I would call "close contact" but then that was just one day of 40 days since and people in Bangkok do that on a daily hourly basis - but even so

Best to keep away from crowds and, above all, confined spaces. Planes & cruise ships come to mind.

 

Friends of mine in Canberra have just cancelled an Easter trip to here in Surin. Hours in a plane, breathing in everyone else's viruses, and the prospect of "up to 3 months" confinement on a desert island off Oz on return ... 

 

Meanwhile, Chinese tourists continue to pour in to this fair land. The competence of the Thai government makes the State governments in Oz look like models of productivity and probity.

[Haecksler]

1 hour ago, mfd101 said:

Meanwhile, Chinese tourists continue to pour in to this fair land. The competence of the Thai government makes the State governments in Oz look like models of productivity and probity.

Yes and meanwhile the virus spread within Thailand without much knowledge.

Who on earth with the capability of logical thinking and a understanding of "common sense" will believe that Thailand is spared from that virus knowing the current circumstances?? 

 

As I do not thrust the official numbers the best way to find out whether the virus spread is to see how the hospitals fill up.

[Tchooptip]

4 hours ago, nobodysfriend said:

 

It speads very easily from one person ( even not known to be infected ) to another , to another , to another ... be careful !

 

 

 

Les  'contamines' , in French that means the ' infected ' . Strange coincidence ...?

Nothing at all to do with infected or contaminated!

The name "Contamine" comes from the Latin name condominium meaning "undivided land"  or "common domain" , or "land belonging to the seigniorial domain and free of charges", or "undivided land between two noble properties" 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Contamines-Montjoie

[sandyf]

4 hours ago, Haecksler said:

As I do not thrust the official numbers the best way to find out whether the virus spread is to see how the hospitals fill up.

That may not be very accurate.

My niece is an intern at a Bangkok hospital and she has been roped in to talk to the Chinese patients as she did her degree in China.

A couple of weeks ago a Chinese guy had come to the outpatients with the symptoms and was sent the relevant department for testing. My niece had to explain what would happen and he just refused to take the tests, said he couldn't afford it, and walked out.

You may also have to include the mortuary.

[Samuel Smith]

7 minutes ago, sandyf said:

That may not be very accurate.

My niece is an intern at a Bangkok hospital and she has been roped in to talk to the Chinese patients as she did her degree in China.

A couple of weeks ago a Chinese guy had come to the outpatients with the symptoms and was sent the relevant department for testing. My niece had to explain what would happen and he just refused to take the tests, said he couldn't afford it, and walked out.

You may also have to include the mortuary.

Tests should be free, & same for quarantining, or people wont come forward if they have symptoms.

[CanuckThai]

18 minutes ago, sandyf said:

That may not be very accurate.

My niece is an intern at a Bangkok hospital and she has been roped in to talk to the Chinese patients as she did her degree in China.

A couple of weeks ago a Chinese guy had come to the outpatients with the symptoms and was sent the relevant department for testing. My niece had to explain what would happen and he just refused to take the tests, said he couldn't afford it, and walked out.

You may also have to include the mortuary.

Yeah, very quiet about new numbers here.  Almost scary quiet.  I'm obviously not hoping for more cases, but the numbers everywhere else are climbing significantly.  Amulets but be working overtime in Thailand.... 

Edited February 10, 2020 by CanuckThai
penmanship

[darksidedog]

A number of off topic and bickering posts have been removed.

Please stay on topic, which automatically excludes any discussion of Brexit.

Two members can consider themselves fortunate not to get a warning.

Keep it going and their luck will run out.