France has identified its first case of a new strain of coronavirus emerging from the Middle East in a person recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, the health ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said it had opened an investigation into what it said was the first and only confirmed case of the virus in France and would hold a news conference later in the day.
"The person has been placed in isolation in an intensive care ward," the ministry said in a statement. The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) said it had been informed of the French case but had no further details.