First fatality from coronavirus outside China

The first coronavirus death outside Asia has been confirmed in France, it has been reported.

French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said an elderly Chinese tourist treated in a hospital in France became the first death to the virus in Europe, Reuters reported on Saturday.

In mainland China, the death toll from Covid-19 has passed 1,500 after health authorities reported another 143 deaths early on Saturday morning.

That increase saw the total reach 1,523 deaths.

However, authorities also said the latest 2,641 daily new cases of the virus represented a "major drop", due to the widespread implementation of a new diagnostic method.

The total number of confirmed cases globally now stands at more than 67,000.

Health officials in the UK have contacted more than 200 people who attended a conference in central London after it emerged one delegate is suffering from coronavirus.

Public Health England (PHE) sent a letter to those who were at the UK Bus Summit at the QEII Centre in Westminster on February 6, including several MPs, two of whom have now decided to stay mostly at home.

The person taken ill is one of the nine people diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK.

Dr Yimmy Chow, consultant in health protection at PHE, said: "One of our main priorities has been to identify any people who we think have been in close contact with confirmed cases of Covid-19 to provide public health advice, as they may be at slightly increased risk of catching the virus.

"While the degree of contact conference delegates may have had with the case is unlikely to have been significant, we have taken a precautionary approach and informed them of the situation."

Published: 15/02/2020 by Radio NewsHub