PARIS -- France has announced three confirmed cases of the deadly new virus from China, the first cases in Europe and the first outside Asia and the United States.

Authorities said all three sickened people had travelled to China.

Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said she expects more cases and that the virus must be battled like a wildfire. She said the likely reason that France has the first European cases is that it quickly developed a test allowing medics to rapidly diagnose the sickened.

All three cases in France have been hospitalized, in isolation -- two in Paris, the other in the southwestern city of Bordeaux.