France has reported a second case of a new type of corona virus infection.
The 50-year-old man shared a ward with the only other known case in the country, a possible sign of human-to-human transmission. The virus is similar to the one that caused SARS, a respiratory syndrome that killed 775 people in 2003. The new virus cluster broke out last year in Saudi Arabia, then spread to Europe. It has killed 18 people so far.
Assistant Deputy Secretary of World Health Organization Keiji Fukuda says it appears likely that the virus can be passed between people in close contact, but it is so far unable to sustain general transmission in communities.