Europe braces for virus threat as tour firms cancel China visits

Europe has introduced precautions and preventative stepsin its battle against the spread of the novel coronavirus, but the continent seems to be regarding the overall threat as relatively weak.

France, Europe's first nation with confirmed cases, identified its third on Friday, prompting Agnes Buzyn, the health minister, to tell reporters that Paris will introduce measures to stop the disease becoming an epidemic.

"You have to treat an epidemic like you treat a fire," she said. "You need to locate the source very quickly."

Officials have been tracking down people who interacted with the three who have the disease and putting manyinto quarantine.

"Every person who has been in contact with patients isbeing identified," the Health Ministry said in a statement. "They will receive specific instructions from the health authorities to avoid contact, in order to limit the spread of the virus."

Throughout the continent, people who fear they may have the virus are being told to keep away from doctors' offices and hospitals and instead call the emergency services, again in an attempt to reduce contact.

And France took more decisive action on Monday, when Prime Minister Edouard Philippe offered French people trapped in locked-down Wuhan a direct flight back to France, where they will be quarantined for 14 days.

As of Tuesday morning, the only other European nation with a confirmed case was Germany.

Deutsche Welle said German health authorities believe the infected man is the first person outside China to catch the illness from a person who is not a relative. The man was infected by a Chinese colleague; a woman visiting his workplace from Shanghai.

The Reuters news agency reports that some European tour operators have cancelled planned trips to China over concern about the virus. SETO, which represents tour operators in France, has told its members to consider cancelling tours until at least Feb 21. And Russian tour operators have also stopped selling package holidays to China.

Astrid Vabret, a professor of virology medicine at Caen University Hospital, told FRANCE 24 that European airports could help in the fight to keep the disease at bay by using thermal cameras to detect passengers with a temperature; a move already in place in China.

"Chinese authorities have put in place measures never before taken," she said, while noting that, if the disease enters France, "everybody is prepared in the hospitals".

Buzyn said she believes the World Health Organization has held back on declaring a public health emergency until adequate medical personnel and equipment can be directed at airports.

That lack of equipment underwhelmed passengers arriving in Paris from Shanghai on Sunday. One told Agence France-Presse: "There were a dozen first-aiders and two or three policemen. They just gave us very brief instructions. They didn't give us any form to fill, no heat control. They didn't even ask what city we were coming from." In contrast, he said, they were scanned in Shanghai with a "thermal machine" and had other checks.

But some health professionals are questioning whether screening works.

Professor Aileen Marty, from the infectious diseases department at Florida International University, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that the fact that people are spreading the virus before developing symptoms means it will be hard to identify those with the disease. And Professor Wendy Barclay, from the department of infectious diseases at Imperial College London, told the Guardian newspaper that this, coupled with the fact that most people only get a mild version,means the virus could spread rapidly.

"If this does prove to be the case, then controlling the spread does become more of a challenge, and measures like airport screening are unlikely to stem the virus effectively," she said.

But, thankfully, some experts believe the virus may not be as potent as feared.

Dr Yazdan Yazdanpanah, who is caring for two of the three French patients, told Associated Press the chance of "an epidemic in France or in Europe is weak, extremely weak".

He said the "illness is a lot less serious … than, for example, SARS", the severe acute respiratory syndrome that claimed nearly 800 lives in 2002 and 2003, which he said was 15 times more deadly.

But some French cities erred on the side of caution on the weekend and cancelled their Lunar New Year parades.

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, said: "They are very emotional and concerned. They are really not in a mood to party now."

As of Monday afternoon, 73 people had been tested for the virus in the United Kingdom. All were clear, suggesting the "risk to the public remains low", said the nation's Department of Health and Social Care.

The Daily Mail notes that UK authorities are focusing on tracking down around 2,000 people who recently entered Britain from Wuhan.

At Heathrow Airport, teams of doctors greet passengersarriving from China. And London is considering joining Paris in airlifting citizens out of Wuhan.

Public Health England, meanwhile, believes it is making good progress on developing a genetic test to diagnose the virus "on the same working day", a step that would greatly help in the fight against the disease.