A second person suffering from the coronavirus died in France overnight as health officials tried to find out how the college teacher, who had not visited any country with a known outbreak, had caught the new disease.
The 60-year-old man was already seriously ill when he was admitted to a hospital in Paris late on Tuesday. He died overnight, health officials said on Wednesday, as the total number of registered coronavirus cases in France rose to 17.
Another man from the same northerly Hauts de France region who had the virus without having been to an affected zone was on life-support.