Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MPS self-isolate in coronavirus exposure scare
Fears for hundreds at conference Chris tells of arrests in lockdown city
HUNDREDS of people who went to a conference near the Houses of Parliament have been warned they could now have the coronavirus.
Labour MPS Lilian Greenwood and Alex Sobel, who attended, put themselves in isolation yesterday.
A man who became one of the UK’S nine confirmed cases was among 250 delegates at the event in Central London.
He is thought to have caught the virus at a chalet in France visited by Brighton
“super spreader” Steve Walsh.
Health chiefs have traced people known to have had contact with the unnamed man at the UK Bus Summit at the Queen Elizabeth II
Centre. He could have infected anyone within two metres of him for more than 15 minutes.
Mr Sobel’s office said the
MP for Leeds North West, 44, “has cancelled all public engagements, including constituency surgeries, until the 14-day incubation period is over”.
Dr Yimmy Chow, of Public Health
A BRITON in Wuhan has told how anyone breaking residential quarantine is being arrested.
Chris Hill, 38, from Sunderland, lives with his wife and daughter. He said people trying to break quarantine have been tackled to the ground by medical staff and police.
England, said: “While contact that conference delegates may have had with the [man] is unlikely to have been significant, we’ve taken a precautionary approach.” Delegates have been told to stay indoors and avoid contact with others if they have any symptoms. Ms Greenwood, 53, said: “To be extra-cautious I’m cancelling my public engagements until 20th February.”
Virus deaths in China rose by 121 yesterday to 1,380, with 63,581 now infected. In the UK a Chinese woman was confirmed as the ninth case. So far authorities have no evidence that the virus is being transmitted here. At Heathrow yesterday a passenger was evacuated from a flight from San Francisco after falling ill. It’s believed the person may have had coronavirus symptoms. Sally and David Abel, stuck on a cruise ship quarantined off Japan, have appealed to billionaire Richard Branson to fly all the captive British passengers home.
“The city is on lockdown,” he added. Another expat, Christian Austin,
45, of Catterick, N Yorks, has also been confined to his home in Qinhuangdao – a 14-hour drive from Wuhan. He said: “Residents can’t go out unless they have a pass.”