Spain, UK see new virus cases; French hunt carriers in Alps

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — The U.K. confirmed its fourth case of the new virus from China and Spain reported its second case as European authorities pressed Sunday to contain the spread of the coronavirus by hunting down those who came into contact with infected people.

Both the new cases were acquired during trips to France, officials said.

French medical authorities were zeroing in on a ski resort in the Alps where five British citizens, including a 9-year-old child, contracted the virus. Officials were testing hundreds of children and their families in Contamines-Montjoie.

French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn visited the resort on Sunday and sought to reassure residents and tourists that they can “live normally” there because there’s a “very weak risk” of catching the virus.

Even so, the fact that a British man who had become infected during a business trip to Singapore could infect others days later in the French Alps underscored the potential for the outbreak to spread further.

Italian health authorities in Tuscany, meanwhile, were trying to re-trace the steps of a Taiwanese couple who stayed four days in a Florence hotel. They flew to Hong Kong and then to Taiwan on Feb. 1 and were later confirmed to have the virus.

The new U.K. case is a known contact of a previously confirmed case there, the country’s Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said, adding that “experts ... continue to work hard tracing patient contacts."

In Spain, authorities were working to identify everyone who came into contact with a British man whose case was detected in Mallorca, a popular vacation island in the Mediterranean Sea, Spain's National Microbiology Center said.

The man, who lives on the island, contracted the virus at the end of January at a French ski resort,...