British expert’s fears over killer virus

THE killer Chinese virus has left a British expert “quaking in his shoes”, he admitted last night.

Six people have already died of the coronavirus, which is related to the Sars virus that killed 774 people in the early 2000s.

Cases have already been reported outside China – in Japan, South Korea, Thailand and one in the US city of Seattle.

Professor John Oxford, a virologist at Queen Mary, University of London, said: “The worst concern is the Chinese New Year.

“None of us have faced a new virus with so many people in a community travelling around. That’s what’s going to happen in China at the end of the week.

“Once they are close together in taxis or small rooms, then there may be a problem.”

He said the old-fashioned way of stopping viruses was the best defence.

Professor Oxford added: “The only way to stop it is physical cleaning and social distance – keeping away from people.”

The World Health Organisation will today decide whether to declare the latest virus an international emergency as it did for swine flu and ebola.

Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo have been screening passengers from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the outbreak is believed to have started in a market.

US authorities last week announced similar measures at three major airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

Reported cases tripled over the weekend, infecting nearly 300 people.

But the number of carriers unknowingly spreading the disease is believed to run into the thousands.