LONDON — A British man who tested positive for coronavirus was branded a “super spreader,” his every movement detailed by the local media.

Business has plummeted in a French ski resort identified as the scene of several transmissions of the virus.

And after some employees of a German car company were diagnosed with the virus, the children of other workers were turned away from schools, despite negative test results.

With 42 confirmed cases across the continent, the coronavirus outbreak is far less serious in Europe than it is in China, where more than 2,000 people have died and the fight to contain the virus has taken on the trappings of a wartime campaign.