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France confirms new case of deadly SARs-like virus

A second person has become infected with the new deadly SARs-like coronavirus after sharing a hospital room with country’s first sufferer.

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French health authorities said early Sunday that a second person had contracted a deadly new SARS-like virus, after sharing a hospital ward with the first victim identified in the country, reports France 24.

The virus, known as nCoV-EMC, is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which triggered a scare 10 years ago when it erupted in east Asia, leaping to humans from animal hosts and killing some 800 people.

The latest victim shared a hospital room with a 65-year-old man who is in intensive care in the northern town of Lille after being diagnosed with the virus that has already killed 18 people, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

Read more of this report from France 24.