BRITAIN’S FIRST VIRUS DEATH
Patient was in her 70s ++ Cases in UK surge to 116 ++ Half are being treated at home ++ Tests may stop as so many are infected
THE UK announced its first coronavirus death last night as it emerged that many patients are being monitored at home and not treated in hospital.
Up to 47 individuals with a mild form of the illness are caring for themselves in their bedrooms, supported by daily calls with health officials.
This is nearly half of the 99 patients in the UK suffering with coronavirus. Although there have been a total of 116 cases so far, 17 have recovered.
Last night, the Department of Health confirmed the UK’s first death from coronavirus, believed to be a woman in her 70s who died at the Royal Berkshire Hospitals in Reading.
The NHS’s move towards ‘home monitoring’ of those with the disease wherever possible is another acknowledgement that officials are bracing themselves for a surge in new cases.
Downing Street said it was now ‘highly likely’ that the virus would spread in a ‘significant way’.
Appearing before MPs yesterday, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said that any epidemic would put ‘big pressures’ on the health service, possibly leading to a shortage of beds and oxygen. In other developments: In a significant change to the official advice, Britons who had returned from any part of Italy were told to self-isolate for two weeks if they felt unwell;
Professor Whitty said the UK was moving ‘full tilt’ towards the second phase of the outbreak, with officials trying to ‘delay’ rather than ‘contain’ the virus;
Public Health England said it would stop testing patients in the next few weeks should the number of cases rise dramatically;
A child at Liverpool’s Alder Hey Hospital reportedly tested positive for coronavirus;
Britons continued to panic buy despite appeals from Boris Johnson and health officials;
The competition watchdog warned retailers they faced prosecution if they tried to exploit coronavirus fears by raising prices;
The World Health Organisation advised shoppers to wash fruit and vegetables and avoid handling cash;
More than 1,000 workers were evacuated from two office blocks in London’s Canary Wharf after an employee at HSBC tested positive;
More than 100 Britons are stranded on board a Princess Cruises vessel off the coast of California as tests are carried out for suspected cases of coronavirus.
Yesterday the Department of Health announced there had been an additional 29 cases, bringing the total so far in the UK to 116. Health tweeted: that health a conditions patient Secretary ‘Terribly with sad Matt has underlying news died Hancock today with coronavirus condolences in to Reading. their family My sincere and loved ones. We will work tirelessly to protect the public.’
But the majority of patients will contract only a mild form of coronavirus and NHS officials say there is no need for them to come into hospital and risk infecting others.
They are now allowing low-risk individuals to stay at home and be monitored with daily calls from Public Health England.
But if the number of cases continues to rise – as is expected – PHE will stop testing patients with symptoms because they do not have the resources.
PHE spokesman Dr Susan Hopkins admitted there were ‘ongoing pressures’ some waiting health we Professor are with people where now and ‘We up some on to Whitty social have mainly we six claim testing are moved delay days. care told delay.’ mainly to services select MPs built have from in on in, committee: been a contain, and the situation to or severe potency Health summer as officials over the epidemic the virus hope warmer would may that months. a lose be spring less its would without More be importantly, much the current better able additional the to NHS cope pressures weeks of contingency and with precious planning. extra Professor Whitty said: ‘Depending on how high the peak, this could be anywhere from a rather bad winter – but in spring or summer for the NHS – through to huge numbers way over-topping the ability put obviously will be ‘Those those come everyone on of the bits which the under would service. of NHS in the require pressure beds, have realistically system big people and first which pressures that will to to have require care beds.’ oxygen people and to have those critical which patients PHE later are confirmed believed that to have ten caught the disease in Britain, including seven who had been diagnosed in the past 24 hours. Dr Michael Head, a senior fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said: ‘The first UK death is sad to note, but fits in with the pattern we have seen elsewhere, namely that the patient was older in age with existing health difficulties.’
‘We will work tirelessly’
THEY say scary times call for steady heads. Fortunately, Professor Chris Whitty is one weirdly cool hombre. For 90 minutes yesterday, England’s Chief Medical Officer answered questions from the Commons health committeee on the coronavirus outbreak. No notes, no sprawling entourage.
He didn’t so much as require a replenishing tumbler of Highland Spring as he delivered a masterclass in level-headedness and straight speaking. We don’t see civil servants such as Professor Whitty in the committee rooms nowadays. Usually they squirm, they obfuscate, and they speak in ghastly jargon, using words such as ‘upskilling’ or refer constantly to matters ‘going forward’.
The Prof, by contrast, didn’t pause, hesitate or even deviate for a second. The man would be a demon on Radio 4’s Just A Minute.
Some of what Whitty had to say was undeniably stark. Some 600,000 people in the UK could perish from the virus.
His appearance, too, is mildly alarming. He has mad scientist hair and poached-egg eyes which bulge disconcertingly. But his ability to speak clearly and directly was oddly soothing. Indeed, it reminded me of Ian McDonald, the deadpan Ministry of Defence official with the Ronnie Corbett specs, whose daily bulletins during the Falklands War viewers found similarly comforting.
Whitty arrived at the Thatcher Room in Portcullis House at 9am, where he was greeted by committee chairman Jeremy Hunt.
Someone politely observed that he must be exhausted considering recent events. Whitty replied with a nonplussed shrug of the shoulders.
Hunt and his team wisely allowed their guest to do much of the talking. Customarily, committees take on a snippy nature as members play for the cameras but yesterday they listened intently to a man fully on top of his brief.
Coronavirus is here, Whitty declared. It lives among us and the Government’s hopes of containment are over. We have entered the phase of delaying its spread as long as we can until a vaccine is found, which is likely to be more than a year away.
What we were hearing was the stuff of disaster movies, that key juncture when the President orders his Joint Chiefs to move the Defcon alert state to three (out of five).
Yet Whitty managed to convey his views as coolly as the calming crackle of the captain’s voice when a plane enters heavy turbulence.
One lazily worded statement in situations such as these could prompt widespread panic and mass looting on the high street. But each answer he gave was more carefully crafted than a Faberge egg.
Every now and again, a little hedge was slipped in, such as ‘there’s a “but” to that’ or ‘that may change but that is my current view’.
He dismissed any panicked measures. Closing schools, he said, was pointless for the time being. Nor did he see reason to disband Parliament. (Was that a mild whiff of disappointment I detected among the committee as he said that?)
AS FOR stockpiling food, it simply made no sense. Dealing with this virus, he pointed out, would be ‘marathon, not a sprint’.
Someone raised the handshaking issue. ‘If someone coughs in front of you, whether or not there was coronavirus, I would advise you to avoid taking that hand,’ he said, smiling.
At that point, the committee broke into smirks as Whitty had a coughing fit of his own. Handscrubbing, he reiterated, was the key to avoidance.
Oh, and that revolting hand gunk everyone is using? Nothing beats a bit of old-fashioned soap and water, apparently.
Labour’s Taiwo Owatemi (Coventry NW) asked about pregnant women. ‘Pregnant women needn’t start worrying,’ Whitty remarked with a dismissive wave of the hand. Laura Trott (Con, Sevenoaks) wondered about smokers. ‘Well, now’s as good a time as any to give up,’ the Prof advised dryly.
By now the committee had relaxed a bit, like patients who’ve discovered their prognosis wasn’t as grim as they’d feared, requiring nothing more than a day’s rest and a generous tot of whisky. But then they had witnessed a performance so reassuringly devoid of hysteria. Knee-jerk nanny syndrome in reverse.
A timely reminder, if needed, that science must lead the battle against this potential pandemic, not politics.