THIRD VIRUS VICTIM IN UK

Italy quarantines 16m ++ Britons told not to go to danger zone ++ Chaos over monitoring on flights ++ And now a...

A THIRD victim of coronavirus died in hospital in Britain yesterday.

The man, who had recently returned from Italy, was said by health officials to be in his 60s.

Italy is the epicentre of the European outbreak and yesterday saw an extraordinary crackdown by the authorities when 16 million people were quarantined.

His death at north manchester General Hospital came amid confusion over monitoring of travellers arriving from Italy.

Questions were asked about whether British airports were carrying out so-called enhanced monitoring on those coming from Italy’s affected regions.

Enhanced monitoring involves travellers being told to alert crew members if they are unwell during the flight and the captain having to obtain permission from the airport before anyone can disembark.

Leaflets are then handed out to all passengers about calling nHS 111 and selfisolating if they experience a cough, sore throat or temperature.

Yesterday the Italian government banned the movement of all people living in its northern regions, including milan, Venice and Lake Como.

Last night the Department of Health urged anyone returning from the affected regions in Italy to self-isolate for 14 days – even if they have no symptoms.

and the Foreign Office urged Britons against all but essential travel to those

regions. Despite these unprecedented measures, there was confusion last night over whether passengers flying into the UK from Italy were undergo - ing proper monitoring.

Public Health England claimed it had been carrying out ‘enhanced monitoring’ of all flights from northern Italy since last Wednesday.

Thousands of flights from southern Italy are not undergoing the precautions, which means travellers may be coming into the UK with the virus and not being picked up.

Several travellers from Italy – including Milan – said they had passed through UK airports without seeing any officials.

PHE said it would be extending the checks to all flights from Italy this Wednesday, although that is more than two and a half weeks since cases out there first began to escalate.

Federico Gatti, of the UK bureau of Italian broadcaster Mediaset, tweeted yesterday: ‘ Just landed in London from Milan. Zero checks. No info. How can it be possible?’

A spokesman from PHE said they ‘welcomed feedback’, adding that enhanced monitoring should be in place for all flights from northern Italy.

Earlier, Professor Hugh Pennington, a microbiologist at the University of Aberdeen, said he was ‘surprised’ checks were apparently not being carried out.

Professor Jonathan Ball, a virologist from the University of Nottingham, said it ‘absolutely makes sense for these measures to be implemented’.

As the UK reported 64 new cases yesterday – its largest daily increase so far – taking the total to 273:

Britain’s top GP, P rofessor Martin Marshall, warned that routine operations would be scaled back;

The number of global cases reached 107,800, with 3,661 deaths across 95 countries;

France banned gatherings of over 1,000 people as its death toll hit 19;

British passengers trapped on a cruise ship quarantined off the US coast pleaded with the Government to bring them home.

Boris Johnson will today lead a meeting of the Cobra emer - gency committee, at which experts will discuss what measures the UK needs to take as it moves into the ‘delay’ stage of the outbreak.

Previously the Government had been trying to ‘contain ’ the virus, but this second phase could lead to staff being encouraged to work from home, the cancellation of mass gatherings, and extra precautions for the elderly.

Scientists were earlier con - cerned over claims that Public

Health England (PHE) was not carrying out enhanced monitoring of flights from Italy, where 7,375 cases and 366 deaths have been confirmed. This process is in place for flights from nine countries in the F ar East, including China, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Hong K ong and Malaysia.

Yesterday China reported just 52 new cases of coronavi - rus, South K orea 272, Japan 51, Hong K ong seven and Malaysia s ix. Italy saw 1,492 new infections, and there were 743 in Iran.

Last night the Foreign Office urged Britons against all but essential travel to all of Lombardy, including Milan and Como, as well as V enice, Treviso, Parma and Modena.

Professor P ennington said extending enhanced monitoring to flights from Italy and Iran ‘would be a very good idea’. He said: ‘These are two places where there are far more new cases of coronavirus than there are in China.’

Professor Ball added: ‘Given the fact that the advice for people travelling in from Italy is to self-quarantine... it abso - lutely makes sense for those measures to be implemented.’