Hundreds of people who came into contact with the British child infected with Coronavirus in the French Alps have been tested for the deadly virus.
Worried families, wearing facemasks, gathered at a medical centre adjoining the child's school in Les Contamines awaiting the results, which are due this evening.
Officials have closed the 95-pupil primary school for lessons this week in the small ski resort, an hour from Geneva.
The nine-year-old son of British couple Bob and Catriona Saynor, who moved to the Alps three years ago, is in hospital in France after being airlifted from the resort on Friday afternoon.
The local ambulance service estimated 200 people had been tested by Sunday afternoon.
Health Minister Agnès Buzyn, speaking at a hastily arranged press conference in Les Contamines, said: “We have prioritised the children who have been in the most contact with the affected child, then the children who have symptoms and finally those who are less at risk because their contact has been reduced.
“The situation is changing, our decision will depend on whether we have positive results in the evening.”
Environmental consultant Mr Saynor, 48, has also been diagnosed with the deadly virus along with three other Britons from another family who were staying in the Saynor’s six-bedroom ski chalet.
Mr Saynor’s two other children and four other Britons from the other family are in isolation in French hospitals as a precaution.
A second school in nearby Saint-Gervais, which has 200 pupils and was attended by the Saynor’s son for one day last week, will also be shut this week.
The mayor, Jean-Marc Peillex, advised against panic.
He said: “We must not panic an entire population. We want to put into perspective the risk of contamination - the young Briton did not rub shoulders with a whole school but he rubbed shoulders with five students for half a day.”
The Les Contamines Ski Club, where the child is a member, cancelled training on Sunday.
One mother, whose child is friends with the British boy, was taking him to be tested.
She said: “It’s scary. My son has had five days of high fever. Is it ‘flu? Is it something else? We don’t know. I think it’s more contagious than they want to say.”
Didier Mollard, a father of a child at the Les Contamines school, said: “We are taking their temperature twice a day and are watching them closely. We are worried 100 per cent for sure. “
Émilie Bétourné, a mother whose son attends the school, said: “My son is in the class of the brother of the child who is infected.
“I am not panicking for the moment. I am waiting instruction from the doctors. We’ll listen to what they say and observe the health of our children. School is closed for the week.”
Les Contamines village was eerily quiet on Sunday. The resort should usually be bustling with the start of the Paris half-term.
Local Sophie Lanier said: “It shouldn’t be this quiet in the resort. I think a lot of businesses are going to be worried that people won’t risk coming. It’s sad.”
Skiers buying lift passes early Sunday morning also expressed their concerns.
Joseph Dubois, 53, who was skiing with his wife, said: “It’s a small ski station and we are a bit worried. We don’t know where the family went and who is now infected. It is a concern for certain.”
Another skier, Laurent Guy, from Paris, said: “I have been coming here for a long time to this resort and I feel sorry if it is going to be hit hard financially. It is a worry, of course, but we’re staying.”
Annick Roger, director of the tourist board, said: "We've had a lot of calls.
“There have already been a few cancellations, people are panicking a bit, wondering where the infected people could have gone, that's normal.
“Some tourists have turned back on the motorway. It’s a shame.”
On Sunday at the family’s chalet in Les Contamines, a village of 1,200 inhabitants, there was no sign of the drama. The property was not cordoned off and a light was on inside, although no one answered the door.
The chalet has been disinfected by the regional health authority.
Eric Paris, the village pharmacist, said he had had "many requests for masks.
But he said: “It's been 14 days, the incubation period has passed. If all people are walking around in masks, can you imagine the worry? “The regional health agencies and the town hall have issued no instructions to wear them.”
The Regional Health Agency of Auvergne Rhône Alpes is desperately trying to trace the course of the contaminated people and identify with whom they have been on contact.
Director Dr. Anne-Marie Durand said that contact "between people, close and prolonged" was necessary for contamination.
