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UK 'superspreader' may have passed coronavirus to nearly a dozen people in 3 countries

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A British man who contracted the new coronavirus on a business trip appears to have spread the virus to 11 other people.

A U.K. man infected with the new coronavirus, 2019-nCov, likely spread the virus to 11 others while staying at the French Alpine ski resort of Le Contamines-Montjoie.
A U.K. man infected with the new coronavirus, 2019-nCov, likely spread the virus to 11 others while staying at the French Alpine ski resort of Le Contamines-Montjoie. (Image credit: Shutterstock)

A British man who contracted the new coronavirus on a business trip spread the virus to 11 other people from three countries, according to news reports.

The man, who is in his 50s, had visited Singapore for a sales conference from Jan. 20 to Jan. 22, according to The Guardian. A little more than 100 people attended the conference, and one participant was from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak of the new coronavirus, called 2019-nCoV, is thought to have originated. Officials believe the British man became infected with 2019-nCoV at the conference.

Not knowing he had contracted the virus, the man traveled from Singapore to a French ski resort, where he stayed with family from Jan. 24 to Jan. 28, The Guardian reported. 

Originally published on Live Science. 

Rachael Rettner
Rachael Rettner
Contributor

Rachael is a Live Science contributor, and was a former channel editor and senior writer for Live Science between 2010 and 2022. She has a master's degree in journalism from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program. She also holds a B.S. in molecular biology and an M.S. in biology from the University of California, San Diego. Her work has appeared in Scienceline, The Washington Post and Scientific American.