German virus patient is case of human-to-human transmission in Germany

Health authorities around the world have been on alert after the outbreak of the virus in Wuhan, China. — Reuters pic

MUNICH, Jan 28 — Germany’s first confirmed coronavirus patient caught the disease from a Chinese colleague who visited Germany last week, officials said on today, in the first human-to-human transmission on European soil, according to an AFP tally.

The Chinese employee, a woman from Shanghai, “started to feel sick on the flight home on January 23”, Andreas Zapf, head of the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety, said at a press conference.

A 33-year-old German, with whom she had attended a meeting in Bavaria, tested positive for the virus on Monday evening. — AFP