No.10 ‘won’t use’ Dyson ventilators
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MOUNTAIN HOLIDAY Daren Bland
BRITAIN’S coronavirus “Patient Zero” is believed to be a 50-year-old dad who picked up the disease skiing in Austria.
Daren Bland thinks he caught the virus while in the Austrian resort of Ischgl, on a trip from January 15 to 19.
Police are probing whether Ischgl officials covered up an early outbreak.
If confirmed, it would mean the UK outbreak started earlier than January 31, as currently thought.
IT consultant Mr Bland said: “I was ill for 10 days, it was like wading through treacle. I couldn’t get up, I couldn’t work, it knocked me for six. I was breathless.”
Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at Edinburgh University, said the Bland family should be tested.
He added: “A significant unknown in this epidemic is whether the cases that are symptomatic are just the tip of the iceberg. If there are hidden cases in large numbers then it tells us that the infection is more difficult to control than we thought… but also suggests that there is a possibility herd immunity may have built up.”
NEEDED Dyson’s CoVent machine
SOUTH
DOWNING Street poured cold water on claims that entrepreneur James Dyson had been asked by the government to make 10,000 ventilators.
In a leaked email, Sir James said his company designed the “CoVent” – in 10 days – at the request of Boris Johnson.
But they have not been approved by regulators and No.10 insisted ventilator orders, “are all dependent on machines passing regulatory tests”.
Experts believe the NHS will need at least an extra 30,000 devices.
The PM was criticised after the UK failed to take part in an EU drive for extra ventilators. Lib Dem MP Layla Moran said Mr Johnson had prioritised “Brexit over breathing”.