Chinese tourist dies of Covid-19 in France

The tourist was aged 80, and had been hospitalised - along with his daughter - in “strict isolation” at the Bichat hospital in Paris since January 25, said health minister Agnès Buzyn.

His health had quickly deteriorated, and he had been in a critical condition.

The daughter, who was also confirmed to have the virus, has improved and “is no longer in a worrying state”, said Ms Buzyn. She is set to leave hospital imminently.

Both father and daughter were from Hubei province, home to Wuhan, the city in which the virus originated.

The man is the first person to die of the new virus outside of Asia. Only three other people have died outside of China; one each in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Japan.

France has counted 12 cases of the virus in total, of more than 63,851 counted worldwide. The epidemic has killed more than 1,400 people in China.

Four people who had in the virus in France have left hospital, Ms Buzyn said, and the others remain in isolation but not in a critical state.

Ms Buzyn added: “We must prepare our health system to deal with what could be an eventual pandemic spread of the virus nationally, and a spread of it nationally, which is why I will receive professional health and hospital representatives next Tuesday, here at the ministry, to talk it through."