As of June 25, 2013, 70 cases of infection with the novel coronavirus had been reported to the WHO since April 2012; 39 people have died. The vast majority of cases were identified in Saudi Arabia, and 11 cases were identified in Europe: 4 in the United Kingdom, 3 in Italy, 2 in Germany, and 2 in France. The first French case was diagnosed on May 7, 2013, and the patient has died. The second case was diagnosed on May 12, 2013.

Most patients had traveled to the Arabian Peninsula. However, in the United Kingdom, 2 reported cases had not traveled to high-risk countries. They had been in contact with the same confirmed case, who had traveled to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

These findings suggest the existence of human-to-human transmission of the infection. However, the data collected to date do not indicate significant human-to-human transmission of this new virus in the community.

Since October 1, 2012, France has implemented surveillance coordinated by the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, which had received, as of June 24, 205 reports of suspected NCoV infections, of which 7 contacts of confirmed cases and 49 possible cases were tested (for a total of 56 tested cases): only 2 have been confirmed by the CNR to date.