No10 insists it is ready to counter a pandemic
BRITAIN is “prepared for all eventualities” to counter the threat of coronavirus, Downing Street said yesterday.
In the UK 13 people are known to have Covid-19, including four Britons flown back last weekend from a cruise ship held in Japan.
The Department of Health said so far it had tested 6,536 people.
Number 10 insisted the risk to individuals remains low.
Asked if restrictive measures to combat the spread of the disease could be put in place, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We will be led by the advice from public health and medical experts and will take steps they feel are required to best protect the British public.
“We are well prepared for UK cases, we are using tried and tested procedures to prevent further spread, and the NHS is extremely well prepared and used to managing infections.
“We continue to work closely with the World Health Organisation and international partners as the situation develops and we remain prepared for all eventualities.”
The four Britons diagnosed with Covid-19 while aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship are now being treated at three specialist centres in Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne.
They were among a group of 30 British and two Irish citizens who arrived at a quarantine block at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, Merseyside, on Saturday.
David and Sally Abel, from Northamptonshire, who were on the cruise for their 50th wedding anniversary, remain in a Japanese hospital suffering from the virus and pneumonia.