Is virus in an Uber?
Patient tested positive after ride to casualty 763 Britons given medical checks in a DAY
MORE than 750 British patients were tested for coronavirus in one day as panic over the outbreak intensified across the country.
None of the 763 people tested had the disease but the extraordinary figure – the highest in a day so far – reflects the growing public anxiety.
Further concerns were raised yesterday after NHS officials admitted that a woman with the virus had turned up to a busy A&E unit in an Uber taxi.
The patient – the UK’s ninth confirmed case – arrived at Lewisham Hospital in south London on Sunday night, in a major breach of public health advice. Two healthcare workers who came into contact with the woman have been told to self-isolate and the Uber driver’s account has been temporarily suspended.
Official advice from Public Health England states that anyone who suspects they have coronavirus should stay at home, call NHS 111 and await transport to the nearest hospital assessment pod.
The patient was the first case in London and doctors are worried that the disease’s emergence in the capital will lead to it spreading quickly.
Dr Robin Thompson, an expert in mathematical epidemiology at Oxford University said: ‘ In general, if an initial case is in a densely populated area, then the risk of sustained person-to-person transmission following is higher. This is exacerbated by the fact that London is a transport hub, and the Underground could provide a network to spread the virus quickly.’
Yesterday morning paramedics in hazmat suits turned up to a flat in Paddington, central London, after a patient reported symptoms. Video footage shows a man in a black hoodie walking into an ambulance at 9.45am with two staff members in full body gowns.
Elsewhere, two GP surgeries were closed after patients with suspicious symptoms turned up unannounced.
The Ritchie Street Health Centre in Islington, north London, posted a message on its website stating it would be closed until today ‘due to the coronavirus’. The Ferns Medical Practice in Farnham, Surrey, said it was undertaking a deep clean after a patient had come in after visiting ‘one of the affected coronavirus areas’.
Some 2,512 people in Britain have been tested since last month. Patients with suspected coronavirus have swabs taken of their nose and throat which are sent to one of 12 labs across the UK, including in London, Cambridge, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Results usually come back within 48 hours – although they can be turned around in 24 hours – and the NHS can test a maximum of 1,000 patients in a day.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty said officials were hoping to delay the spread of the coronavirus in this country until the summer. He told Radio 4’s Today: ‘Delay is the next stage of what we need to do because if we are going to get an outbreak in the UK – this is an if, not a when – but if we do, putting it back in time into the summer period, away from winter pressures on the NHS, buying us a bit more time to understand the virus better... is a big advantage.’
He added that while it was ‘highly likely’ the UK would see more cases, the disease could be ‘dampened’ as the weather got warmer.
The head of NHS, Simon Stevens, said many more patients would need to self-isolate at home if they had suspicious symptoms, to contain the spread.
Praising the coronavirus evacuees who left the Wirral yesterday after 14 days of isolation, he said the Arrowe Park Hospital ‘guests’ had ‘set an important example, recognising that over the coming weeks many more of us may need to self-isolate at home for a period to reduce this virus’s spread’.