While in Saudi Arabia, a total of six new cases of infection with the new coronavirus were reported yesterday, in France, no new cases were declared. Measures to isolate the two patients and to monitor people who have been in contact with them have been put in place and should make it possible to stem the spread of the virus. However, we can always fear cases “imported” from abroad.
Nevertheless, InVS remains strongly mobilized. Having moved to reinforced level 2 alert level for a week, the Institute has indeed seen its functioning profoundly modified in recent days. “All positions have been doubled, including on-call duty and epidemiologists who worked on other subjects have also been mobilized” explains in particular the director of the structure, Françoise Weber, to Figaro. A 24-hour permanence is also ensured in order to be sure to be able to detect new cases of coronavirus as soon as possible.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also set up a crisis management unit based in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. It must be said that concerns are great in the country, especially a few months before the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.
To date, 38 confirmed cases of the new virus have been notified to WHO since September 2012 worldwide. Cases of infection with this new coronavirus have so far been detected in Saudi Arabia (28 cases including 15 deaths), Jordan (2 cases including 2 deaths), United Kingdom (4 cases including 2 deaths), Germany (2 cases including 1 death) and in France (2 cases).
