Europe’s Patient Zero

THE wife of the man believed to be ‘Patient Zero’ – the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in Europe – now believes all their family was infected by Chinese tourists in Paris.

Amirouche Hammar, 42, was treated in December for a serious lung infection, several days before China notified the World Health Organisation about the virus. His wife Fatiha, 37, who worked at a supermarket fish counter near Charles de Gaulle Airport, said: ‘Groups of Chinese were always coming in.’

She thinks she had the virus without showing symptoms, and passed it on. The couple’s four children also became ill. Doctors confirmed only last month that Mr Hammar had the virus.