France has confirmed three cases of the deadly coronavirus from China, the French Health Ministry said.
The minister previously said that it is likely that there will be other cases.
The minister of health gave some information on the first case, reported in Bordeaux. "The patient [from Bordeaux] is 48 years old, he has returned from China and he has passed through Wuhan. He consulted [doctors] about his symptoms on January 23. Since yesterday, he has been hospitalized in Bordeaux, he is held in an individual chamber," Buzyn said, as quoted by France Info.
The minister added that the infected man had contacted around 10 people upon his return to France.
As for the second infected person, less information is available. He is also held in a personal chamber in the Bichat hospital in Paris.
The unknown type of viral pneumonia, which was first detected in late December, has recently been confirmed by China and the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a new strain of coronavirus, currently being labelled as 2019-nCoV or Novel Coronavirus. It has already killed 26 people and infected over 890 others in China.
Confirmed cases of the new coronavirus have also been recorded in the United States, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. However, the WHO said on Thursday that it was too early to declare a global emergency.
The Chinese authorities have taken drastic measures to contain the spread of the virus, including imposing curfews and restricting travel for up to 44 million people in central China's major cities on the eve of Chinese New Year.