Number of coronavirus cases in the UK ‘doubles to EIGHT as four more patients in Brighton catch the killer SARS-like infection’
- Four more patients diagnosed in Brighton over the weekend and were all known contacts of UK’s third case
- They were all taken to specialist hospitals in London where they will be treated in isolated for at least 14 days
- Do you know any of the patients? Email [email protected] or call 0203 615 0203
At least eight people in the UK have now caught the killer coronavirus that is rapidly sweeping the world and has claimed 910 lives.
Four new patients were diagnosed in Brighton over the weekend and transferred to specialist hospitals in London to be treated in isolation.
All of the patients – three men and a woman – were ‘known contacts’ of a businessman from Brighton who became the UK’s third case last Friday.
They have been whisked into quarantine in specialist infectious diseases wards at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and The Royal Free hospital in London.
One of new cases had been staying at the same ski resort in the French Alps, near Chamonix, visited by the patient from Brighton.
Confirming the cases this morning, professor Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England, said: ‘Four further patients in England have tested positive for novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in the UK to eight.
‘The new cases are all known contacts of a previously confirmed UK case, and the virus was passed on in France. Experts at Public Health England continue to work hard tracing patient contacts from the UK cases. They successfully identified these individuals and ensured the appropriate support was provided.
Ministers today declared the outbreak – which has infected more than 40,000 and killed 910 people – a ‘serious and imminent’ threat to the British public
Arrowe Park Hospital, the isolation facility in The Wirral, where Britons evacuated from Wuhan in China have been staying
Health chiefs are also under increasing pressure to name a British ‘super spreader’ of the coronavirus, who is thought to have infected at least seven others
‘The patients have been transferred to specialist NHS centres at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and The Royal Free hospitals, and we are now using robust infection control measures to prevent further spread of the virus.
‘The NHS is extremely well prepared to manage these cases and treat them, and we are working quickly to identify any further contacts these patients have had.’
It comes after the Department of Health today confirmed all patients suspected of having coronavirus will be forcibly quarantined.
Officials announced the measure after a man staying at an isolation facility following his evacuation from Wuhan two weeks ago threatened to walk out.
Ministers today declared the outbreak – which has infected more than 40,000 and killed 910 people – a ‘serious and imminent’ threat to the British public.
Health chiefs are also under increasing pressure to name a British ‘super spreader’ of the coronavirus, who is thought to have infected at least 11 others.
Figures also show 910 people have now died across the world, with all but two deaths recorded in mainland China
More than 40,000 people have now caught the killer coronavirus – nearly 99 per cent of the cases have been recorded in China
The middle-aged man – Britain’s third case – caught the virus during a business conference at in Singapore organised by Servomex, a British gas analytics company.
He then travelled to a ski chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie before returning to Britain on an easyJet flight on January 28.
Five Britons who shared the ski chalet with him were diagnosed over the weekend, and hundreds of residents of the picturesque town are now undergoing tests.
The businessman is at the centre of a web of cases stretching across the UK, France and Spain after he apparently contracted the virus during a four-day trip to Singapore for a sales conference for gas analysis company Servomex.
The man in his fifties then jetted from south-east Asia to the Alps to ski in Les Contamines-Montjoie in late January where five more Britons including a nine-year-old boy became infected despite the ‘super spreader’ not having any cold or flu-like symptoms.
Britain’s health authorities have also contacted 183 passengers and six crew on an Easyjet flight then taken by the unnamed man from Geneva to London, warning that they could be infected.
Five staff at The Grenadier in Hove, his local pub, have been instructed to self-isolate for a fortnight after he went there for a pint on Saturday February 1.
And a student at Portslade Aldridge Community Academy in Brighton has also been told to stay at home for two weeks amid fears he came into contact with the so-called ‘super spreader’.
Officials have desperately tried to stop further spread with a cross-border hunt for all the hundreds of people the Hove man may have had contact with.
Today nine Britons have been confirmed to have the killer virus – five in France, one in Japan, one in Spain and two in the UK.
Two others in the UK are ill, but they are believed to be Chinese nationals holidaying in Yorkshire.
More than 900 people have died and 37,000 have become infected since the outbreak began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has been placed in lockdown to curb the spread – an evacuation flight landed at RAF Brize Norton yesterday.
Public Health England is under pressure to reveal where the so-called ‘super spreader’ had been and the full extent of the numbers under observation.
The task has been made more difficult because the patient, from Hove in East Sussex, interrupted his return from Singapore to Britain by taking a four-day break in the French Alps.
The middle-aged man contracted the virus during a conference at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Singapore organised by Servomex, a British gas analytics company, more than two weeks ago.
He then travelled to a ski chalet in Les Contamines-Montjoie, near Megeve, from January 24 to 28. He returned to Britain on an Easyjet flight on January 28 but fell ill after arriving in Britain.
Chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty said the patient, who is being treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London, is ‘a known contact of a previously confirmed UK case, and the virus was passed on in France’.
Five staff at the Grenadier pub in Hove have been instructed to self-isolate after he visited for two hours on February 1. A school pupil in the area was also told to self-isolate during the investigation into the man’s movements.
Five Britons who shared the ski chalet with him were diagnosed over the weekend, and hundreds of residents of the picturesque town are now undergoing tests.
Professor Paul Hunter, professor in medicine, University of East Anglia, said last night: ‘This new case would appear to be linked to the cluster of cases in the French ski resort which is also linked to the case in Brighton.
‘As such this case is part of the same cluster which is being reported as linked to a British national returning from Singapore.
‘Whilst we currently do not know many details about how this new case was linked to others in the cluster, his/her identification does not at this stage indicate wider spread within the UK community.
‘If the new individual had been already identified through contact tracing and the person was self-isolating then this should not pose any additional risk.
‘Further cases within an already identified cluster are not surprising and do not pose an additional risk to public health providing such contacts are complying with instructions from Public Health England.’
Authorities confirmed yesterday that a fourth case of coronavirus in the UK was also linked to the Hove businessman.
In addition, a British father-of-two who stayed in the ski resort tested positive after returning to his home in Majorca.
The five Britons who caught the virus in the Alps include the chalet’s owner, environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his nine-year-old son.
They are in hospital with three other Britons who were staying at the six-bedroom chalet.
Mr Saynor’s two other children and four Britons from another family are being kept in isolation at French hospitals as a precaution. His wife Catriona, a doctor, is reportedly in the UK.
The family is understood to have been living in the village for just three months after moving from Hove themselves, despite having bought the property several years ago.
Mrs Saynor had left France by the time the investigation began and is under observation in a UK hospital. It is not clear if she was the fourth case diagnosed in Britain.
French officials have closed the 95-pupil primary school attended by the Saynors’ nine-year-old son, while a 200-pupil school in nearby Saint-Gervais he attended for one day last week will also be shut.
Etienne Jacquet, the mayor of Les Contamines-Montjoie, said the chalet had now been disinfected.
At this time of year, the village of 1,200 people, which is part of the Mount Blanc ski area, hosts thousands of skiers.
But local shop staff said some tourists had cancelled bookings, even though French half-term week starts today, followed by British half-term next week.
Last night, Easyjet spokesman said it had contacted all of the passengers and crew on the infected carrier’s flight from Geneva to London Gatwick on January 28.
Five employees at The Grenadier pub in Hove have been instructed to self-isolate after he visited for two hours on February 1. A school pupil in the area was also told to self-isolate during the investigation into the man’s movements.
The meeting in Singapore was attended by 94 other business people, with participants from Malaysia, South Korea and Britain also diagnosed with coronavirus.
Dr Nathalie MacDermott, from King’s College London, told yesterday of her ‘concerns of the potential for this epidemic to develop into a pandemic, particularly if international lines of communication about cases of infection and mechanism of transmission are not maintained’.
Professor Richard Tedder, a visiting professor at Imperial College London, said that the most recent cases gave rise to the ‘potential risk of a pandemic’.
China yesterday raised the death toll from its coronavirus outbreak to 811, passing the number killed globally by the SARS epidemic.
China’s ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, described the virus – which has spread to at least 27 countries and territories, infecting more than 330 people – as ‘the enemy of mankind’.
Health experts believe the outbreak could have spread from bats to humans through the illegal traffic of pangolins – or scaly anteaters – which are prized in China for food and medicine.
The patients staying at Arrowe Park Hospital arrived back in the UK on January 31
The announcement by Matt Hancock (pictured) gives the Government greater powers to fight the spread of the virus, with four confirmed cases in the UK
Environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his nine-year-old son have been named locally as being at the centre of the outbreak and are being treated in hospital
Mr Saynor’s two other children and four Britons from another family are being kept in isolation at French hospitals as a precaution. His wife Catriona, a doctor, is reportedly in the UK
The super spreader had been at the chalet close to Les Contamines’ main ski lifts where five people became ill
Five staff at the Grenadier pub in Hove have been instructed to self-isolate after he visited for two hours on February 1
The landlord has confirmed that the ‘super-spreader’ had been in for a drink but said the pub is open for business
The Britons infected with coronavirus – and the patients ill in the UK
Cases in the UK and where they are being cared for:
Newcastle: Two Chinese nationals who came to the UK with coronavirus and fell ill while on the tourist trail in York
London: British super-spreader who picked up virus in Singapore, flew to ski break in France and then back to the UK where he went to the pub in Hove before feeling ill last week.
One adult who was in the same chalet with the super-spreader, feared to be Dr Catriona Saynor who flew to Britain for medical exams.
Total: Four
British expats and holidaymakers outside the UK
Majorca: A British father-of-two who stayed in the ski resort tested positive after returning to his home in Majorca. His wife and children are not ill.
France: Five people who were in the chalet with the super-spreader. These include the chalet’s owner, environmental consultant Bob Saynor, 48, and his nine-year-old son. They are all in a French hospital.
Japan: A British man onboard a cruise ship docked at a port in Japan tested positive for coronavirus, Princess Cruises said. Alan Steele, from Wolverhampton, posted on Facebook that he had been diagnosed with the virus. Believed to be on his honeymoon, Steele said he was not showing any symptoms but was being taken to hospital.
Total: Seven
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