NHS BRACES FOR VIRUS MAYHEM

Suspected patients to be tested at home ++ Extra staff drafted in to 111 helpline ++ Health chiefs say: Everyone must wash hands for 20 seconds

... but in stricken Tenerife hotel, it’s masks and bikinis!

PATIENTS with suspected coronavirus will be tested in their own homes in a bid to contain the outbreak. They will be ordered to stay indoors and wait for a paramedic or nurse rather than risk infecting dozens of people at hospital or on their way there.

In a further sign that the NHS is preparing for a pandemic, more staff are being recruited to the 111 helpline, which is the first port of call for suspected victims. Officials fear a sudden surge in cases in the UK because the virus is now spreading faster outside China, the country it started in.

A public awareness campaign will be launched next week urging Britons to regularly wash their hands for 20 seconds. Messages will go out on social media and radio stations encouraging handwashing on arrival at work, after using public transport and before food.

As fear of the virus spread, dozens of schools sent pupils home because of possible exposure and 300 oil firm staff were evacuated from their london HQ.

A string of countries confirmed their

first cases of the disease and the number of cases in badly affected Italy hit 400.

A school attended by Prince George and Princess Charlotte was among dozens to close or send pupils home over fears they had been exposed to the virus on trips abroad. In other developments:

■ British Airways cancelled dozens of flights to Milan due to a drop in demand from worried British tourists;

■ Parents revealed they were stockpiling nappies, soup and tinned fruit in case shops were forced to close;

■ The Government told workers they were entitled to take

‘All necessary measures’ ‘Longer waits than usual’

two weeks of paid sick leave if they needed to self-isolate;

■ Ireland’s men’s and women’s Six Nations games against Italy in Dublin were postponed;

■ British holidaymakers pleaded with Boris Johnson to ‘come rescue us’ after being trapped in a Tenerife hotel;

■ Health Secretary Matt Hancock chaired a meeting of the emergency Cobra committee to discuss the crisis.

The NHS has been trialling a home- testing coronavirus service in parts of London but it is expected to be rolled out across England very shortly.

Patients with suspicious symptoms – a cough, shortness or breath or a temperature – will be able to call NHS 111 which will arrange for a district nurse or paramedic to visit and take a swab.

This will avoid them coming into contact with dozens of other healthcare workers or vulnerable patients in waiting rooms, lifts, buses or taxis.

The NHS is hiring extra staff for its 111 helpline which is already dealing with a much higher volume of calls. An NHS England spokesman said the service was ‘understandably busy’ and acknowledged that some ‘may have to wait longer than usual’ as a result.

The underlying message of next week’s public awareness campaign will be ‘ protect yourself and protect others’.

Tests for coronavirus are being extended to include patients displaying flu-like symptoms at 100 GP surgeries and eight hospitals to provide an ‘early warning’ of spread.

Mr Hancock told the Commons yesterday that the Government was ‘taking all necessary measures to minimise the risk to the public’.

He said: ‘We have a clear fourpart plan to respond to the outbreak of this disease: contain, delay, research and mitigate. We are also planning to introduce home testing, some of which has started already.

‘Home testing is the safest place to be tested because people do not have to go anywhere, and that will allow us to roll out testing to a larger number of people.’

The Health Secretary said the Government would be ‘ strengthening’ the public health messages about the virus, adding: ‘In particular, we want to persuade people to wash their hands more and to look out for themselves, especially if they have a sneeze, in order to slow the spread; we want to explain what they should to do if they think they are infected. It is incredibly important that we get this information out across the whole population.’

Mr Hancock however cautioned the nation not to overreact over the possible scale of the outbreak. Yesterday’s official figures showed that 460 new cases were reported by countries outside of China compared with just 412 within China, where the outbreak began two months ago.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organisation, said the spike in infections in Italy, South Korea and Iran was deeply concerning.

He said: ‘ We are not just fighting to contain a virus and save lives. We are also in a fight to contain the social and economic damage a global pandemic could do.’