• A 60-year-old French citizen died of the coronavirus in a Paris hospital on Tuesday night, the country’s health minister said.
  • The person is the country’s first death from the virus. There have been 17 infections recorded there.
  • COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across Europe, with Italy recording a dramatic uptick in cases earlier this week.
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France has recorded its first death from the coronavirus,.

An unnamed 60-year-old French citizen was urgently tested in Paris on Tuesday night, and died overnight, health minister Jérôme Salomon told a Wednesday morning press conference.

It was not immediately clear where the person contracted the disease. Salomon said authorities are investigating.

The deceased person marked the 17th case of the coronavirus found in the country. Salomon also noted two more new cases in the country:

  • A 55-year-old in Amiens, northern France.
  • A 36-year-old in Strasbourg, who had recently traveled to Lombardy, the Italian region worst-hit by the outbreak.

The news comes as COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across Europe, with Italy recording a dramatic uptick in cases earlier this week.

Austria and Switzerland recorded their first cases of the disease on Tuesday.

The majority of infections and deaths remain in China, where more than 75,000 people have been infected and more than 2,000 have died.

Ruqayyah Moynihan contributed reporting.