Changes to sick pay rules will help patients who self-isolate

The UK has seen its biggest day-onday increase in coronavirus cases, with 87 people now confirmed to have the illness.

Three of the 32 new cases in England were passed on in the UK, raising fears community transmission may now be taking hold.

Meanwhile, the prime minister announced new sick pay changes as part of emergency coronavirus legislation so anyone self-isolating is paid from day one rather than day four, as current rules state.

Boris Johnson told MPs people who self-isolate are “helping to protect all of us by slowing the spread of the virus”.

He added: “If they stay at home and if we ask people to self-isolate, they may lose out financially.

“So, I can today announce that the health secretary will bring forward, as part of our emergency coronavirus legislation, measures to allow the payment of statutory sick pay from the very first day you are sick instead of four days under the current rules – and

I think that’s the right way forward. Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing.”

England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said the new cases in the UK included 32 patients from England. “Twenty-nine patients were diagnosed who had recently travelled from recognised countries or from recognised clusters which were under investigation,” he said.

“Three additional patients contracted the virus in the UK and it is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad. This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun.

“At this point in time we think it is likely, not definite, that we will move into onward transmission and an epidemic here in the UK.”

But he stressed that for most people, “this will be a mild or moderate disease, anything from a sniffle to having to go to bed for a few days, rather like with mild flu”.

“Nobody should be penalised for doing the right thing. BORIS JOHNSON