Hancock’s quarantine warning to travellers
TRAVELLERS recently arrived in the UK from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak should “self-isolate”, the Health Secretary has warned.
Matt Hancock urged people who believe they could be infected with the virus, which has killed 81, to quarantine themselves at home.
His advice came as health officials try to trace 1,500 people who flew to Britain from Wuhan in China last week.
Mr Hancock told MPs yesterday: “Coronaviruses do not usually spread if people don’t have symptoms – but we cannot be 100 per cent certain.
“From today we are therefore asking anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days to self-isolate.
“Stay indoors and avoid contact with other people. Do not leave your home until you have been given advice by a clinician.”
The minister urged anyone here who has been to the affected area who develops breathing problems in the next 14 days to call their GP or the NHS 111 line.
Professor Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, told how despite measures to identify travellers carrying the virus at airports, Britain’s first victim was likely to be someone already here.
She said: “Our view is that – although airports are important – the most likely place that we might find a case is somebody in the country already.” Some 73 people have been tested for coronavirus in the UK and all tests have come back negative, the Department of Health and Social Care said in a statement.
Professor Doyle added: “We’ve been here before, we’ve dealt with Middle Eastern virus, we’ve dealt with Sars, we deal with flu regularly, which can be dangerous, but we’re ready.”