Five new cases of coronavirus are registered in France. The Minister of Health announced on Saturday February 8 that four adults and one child were infected with coronavirus 2019-nCoV (now renamed to NCP). They stayed in a chalet in Contamines-Montjoie (Contaminated Mount of Joy) in Haute-Savoie region. It is a two apartments chalet, where eleven people lived in total: eight adults and three children, all of British nationality.

One of the children, aged 9, attended two schools where he took French lessons. Jean-Yves Grall, director general of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional health agency (ARS), has announced that these two schools will be “closed next week to allow for further investigation”.

The chalet was “isolated”, said Jérôme Salomon, the director general of Health department for this region. In detail, “two apartments were investigated in this chalet,” he said. In the first, they established the presence of English tourists, only adults, “with minor symptoms”. Three people were tested positive for the coronavirus. In the second apartment of this chalet, the authorities established the presence of a father and three children. The father and one child, who have “minor symptoms”, have been identified as positive.

In total, eleven people (all of British nationality) were hospitalized overnight from Friday to Saturday, in three hospitals: four at the CHU in Lyon, two at Saint-Etienne and five at Grenoble hospital.

Among these eleven people are the five confirmed positive cases and those who have had close and prolonged contact with the British national who returned from Singapore.

The infected Briton arrived at Contamines-Montjoie, in Haute-Savoie, on 24 January for a four-day trip, before returning to England on 28 January where he self-isolated himself at his home.

He is later taken to St Thomas’ Hospital in London where he is being treated.