The first person to fall ill in France with the new SARS-like coronavirus has died from the illness.
The 65-year-old man had been travelling in Dubai.
He was admitted to hospital on 23 April with what seemed at first to be a severe stomach bug and breathing problems.
A source at the hospital in the northern city of Lille confirmed the new death from the virus, which has to date killed 22 people worldwide.
A second man, 50, is critically ill with the virus strain in the same hospital.
The two men had shared a ward in April at a different hospital.
While there is little evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission of the novel virus, known as nCoV, health experts are concerned about clustering as it has spread from the Gulf to France, Britain and Germany.
The nCoV is from the same viral family that triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world in late 2003 and killed 775 people.
French health officials have screened dozens of people who had come into contact with the two carriers in Lille.
