Marseille Doctor Links Coronavirus Surge to North African Travel as France Fears Second Wave

"Most of the patients who tested positive are people who have returned from travel, from areas where the countries are still in the epidemic phase: It’s the Maghreb, it’s Africa. And family contacts with these positive cases," he said in an interview with CNews.

According to the doctor, "we are therefore in a phase that we call ’travel medicine’". "The virus can come back with these travelers, he warns. But it’s the same with the flu where we also have cases of importation in the summer from the Middle East."

And he concluded: "For now, we are monitoring. This is what we have been doing since the beginning. We are looking at contact cases. The health authorities, I imagine, are also doing so. And we hope that the country will be able to test all returning travelers. As well as during the fall and winter period. Because it is essential to be able to test."