‘Virus is most frightening for 100 years’ says expert

CORONAVIRUS poses the most serious threat to public health since Spanish Flu a century ago, the man leading the fight to find a vaccine said last night after a second death in Britain was confirmed.

Dr Richard Hatchett said the new virus was “the most frightening disease I’ve ever encountered in my career”. Dr Hatchett said that a vaccine will take up to 18 months to deliver at a cost of £1.5 billion.

His warning came as a second person with Covid-19 – a man in his 80s with underlying health conditions – died on British soil. The patient died at Milton Keynes Hospital, Bucks. The victim tested positive for coronavirus but the NHS was waiting last night for a second test to confirm the cause of death.

Dr Hatchett, who heads the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), a body set up by governments and industry to combat global health crises, told Channel 4 News the disease was more frightening than Ebola, which, although it has a far higher mortality rate, did not “have the potential to explode and spread globally”.

He said: “The most concerning thing about this virus is the combination of infectiousness and the ability to cause severe disease or death. And we have not [seen that] since 1918.”

The Spanish Flu pandemic killed between 17 million and 50 million people worldwide, including 228,000 in Britain.

Patients on the Milton Keynes Hospital ward where the elderly patient died were being kept in isolation yesterday and a deep clean has been carried out.

Hospital staff who nursed the patient have also gone into isolation and a detailed “contact tracing” exercise is now being undertaken to find anybody who had been in contact with him.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said he was “very sorry to hear the news of a second death here in the UK, of somebody with coronavirus”. He stressed that the victim “was older and had underlying health conditions”.

As the crisis escalated, and amid signs of mounting hysteria, hand sanitiser at Northampton General Hospital was stolen from patients’ beds and ripped off the walls, while suppliers reported widespread shortages.

The hospital’s bosses sent an email to staff, stressing concerns over the health risk posed to patients by the theft of hand gel. A hospital spokesman said: “Three wall-mounted dispensers have been ripped off and we’ve even seen people coming in and topping up their own dispensers with our product.”

Supermarkets reported a rush on hygiene products including hand sanitiser while three pharmaceutical wholesalers have reported they have run out of the product. Pharmacies said they had been told they could face a three-month wait to restock.

Boots and other high street retailers have limited the number of bottles customers can buy as shoppers reported stocks running low and empty shelves.

The competition watchdog said last week it would consider fining or prosecuting firms found to be artificially ramping up the price of hand gel.

Public Health England said the washing of hands remaindc the best way to guard against the spread of coronavirus.

Last night Scotland’s Women’s Six Nations match with France in Glasgow was postponed after a home player contracted coronavirus. The match was due to be played today at the Scotstoun Stadium. Scottish Rugby said the player was being treated in “a healthcare facility” but was “otherwise well”. The men’s match with France at Murrayfield tomorrow is expected to go ahead.

The latest big firm to be hit by the virus was the US social media giant Facebook, which yesterday closed its London offices after an employee from Singapore was diagnosed with the coronavirus after visiting the UK headquarters between Feb 24 and 26.

Staff were ordered to work from home yesterday. It said the office would be closed until Monday with deep cleaning taking place over the weekend.

British Airways, which like other airlines has been hit hard by the virus and forced to cancel hundreds of flights, reported that two of its baggage handlers had been infected. The employees, reportedly based at Heathrow, have been isolated and are recovering at home.

PHE last night moved to assuage fears that the virus could have spread to thousands of passengers via their luggage. Sources said the two BA baggage handlers had been at a wedding in Italy and contracted the virus there.

One had gone straight into self-isolation on return to the UK and the other had spent a very short time at work before being sent home and had not touched luggage.

PHE said it could not comment on individual coronavirus cases but “contact tracing” would be carried out to determine who among their friends and colleagues needed to self-isolate.

British Airways is one of many airlines which has offered unpaid leave to employees, amid a drop in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.