Brighton: City on the frontline of battle against deadly virus
BRIGHTON was awash with apprehension last night as the city became the frontline in Britain’s fight against the coronavirus.
A total of six of the confirmed UK cases are thought to be from Brighton and Hove – with two of those affected said to be healthcare workers at doctors’ surgeries.
The infected group have all been linked to a British ‘super spreader’ from Hove. He is feared to have contracted the coronavirus on a business trip to Singapore before passing it on to a group of friends he holidayed with in the French Alps.
Dozens of people have been told to ‘self isolate’, with people in pubs, schools and even yoga classes warned that they may have come into contact with carriers.
At the Royal Sussex County Hospital staff set up a dedicated unit to deal with potential cases of the virus.
The focus of concern is Brighton’s County Oak Medical Centre, which was closed yesterday after it emerged that a member of staff had tested positive for coronavirus. The incident is thought to be linked to Catriona Greenwood, 50, a locum doctor at the practice who owns the ski chalet in the French Alps where the ‘super spreader’ is said to have holidayed.
She is understood to have worked a shift at the practice last week. Cleaners wearing overalls, masks and shoe covers could be seen inside the building last night.
A community centre where one of the members of the infected group had been to a yoga class has also been closed as a precaution. Several visitors to the Cornerstone Community Centre in Hove have been told to self-isolate, a member of staff said.
And barman Connor Burree, 19, from The Grenadier pub visited by the ‘super spreader’ has told how he was in quarantined. ‘I am only allowed out of my room to use the bathroom and kitchen,’ he said.