First coronavirus case in Wales confirmed
THE first case of potentially deadly coronavirus has been confirmed in Wales. Yesterday morning, Chief Medical Officer for Wales Dr Frank Atherton confirmed one person had been diagnosed with the virus after travelling back to Wales from northern Italy.
The infected man, who has not been named, but is believed to live in Swansea, had returned home from a trip to Italy.
Dr Atherton said: “I can confirm that one patient in Wales has tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19).
“All appropriate measures to provide care for the individual and to reduce the risk of transmission to others are being taken. I can also confirm that the patient had travelled back to Wales from northern Italy, where the virus was contracted.
“I’d like to take this opportunity to assure the public that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents.”
Asked what the public can do now
to protect themselves, Dr Atherton said: “The public is rightly concerned, but we need to caution that this is not an emergency. Calm is important at the moment.
“Most viruses that people are experiencing are the normal seasonal colds and flu that people see.
“If they are worried about their personal health and if they have contact with those countries where we know coronavirus is spreading then they have access to health support through NHS Direct and 111, and there’s a lot of advice which we update on a daily basis on the Public Health Wales website.”
Public Health Wales is now working to identify close contacts and reduce any risk to the public’s health, said Dr Giri Shankar, the body’s incident director for the coronavirus outbreak response.
Dr Shankar added: “The public can be assured that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents. Working with our partners in Wales and the UK, we have implemented our planned response, with robust infection control measures in place to protect the health of the public.”
Coronavirus presents with flu-like symptoms including a fever, a cough, or difficulty breathing. The current evidence is that most cases appear to be mild.
Vaughan Gething, Minister for Health and Social Services said: “We will continue to do all we can to detect imported cases early and isolate them to avoid any further spread.
“I would like to thank all staff who have been working so hard to prepare our response to this public health incident.
“This latest development is expected and people should continue to follow our advice – anyone who has travelled back from an affected area or who has concerns that they are a close contact of a confirmed case should not attend their GP practice or present at hospital Emergency Departments.
“People should call NHS Direct Wales on 0845 46 47 or 111 Wales, if available in their area. Doing this will mean they get assessed by the right NHS staff whilst also limiting any possible spread to others.
“Everyone can help to lessen the chances of spreading any respiratory virus. The advice is to catch it, bin it, kill it and wash your hands.”
Dr Atherton said health officials are working with the NHS to make sure it has the capacity to handle “inevitable” future cases in Wales.
Asked if he is concerned coronavirus will put further demand on an already overstretched NHS, he said: “That’s always a risk particularly at this time of year when we know our colleagues in the NHS are working under quite significant pressure.
“What we’re doing in Wales, as in other parts of the UK, is to work very closely with the NHS to make sure that they have the capacity and we’re also, by using our approach of identifying cases early and containing it by case management and managing clusters, we’re also trying to delay the spread of the virus.
“It seems inevitable to me that we will see more cases, but if we can delay that into the spring or summer months then the risk to the NHS of overload is much, much less.”
Dr Atherton stressed that the NHS is carefully preparing for the worst case scenario.
He said: “Hope isn’t our main approach here. Our approach is to plan for the worst and hope for the best.
“We are preparing the NHS, we are working carefully with NHS colleagues, executives and all the health boards to make sure the NHS is as ready as it can be if we do see a surge in cases of coronavirus.” Welsh Conservatives spokeswoman for health, Angela Burns, said everyone must play their part in containing the spread of coronavirus.
She said: “An outbreak of a virus of this magnitude made it reaching Wales inevitable. We can, and must, take individual responsibility to try to keep ourselves – and by extension those in our families, schools, workplaces, and communities – well. “The common-sense advice is the same as during the ‘flu and cold season: catch it, bin it, kill it.
“So, to protect against infection, wash your hands frequently with
soap and water or a sanitiser gel. Catch coughs and sneezes with tissues, which should be thrown away immediately afterwards, and wash your hands after disposing of tissues. Also, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands, and avoid close contact with people who are unwell.”
Plaid Cymru health spokesman Rhun ap Iorwerth AM said it was now important that NHS staff had “the support they need to keep the public safe” and to ensure any new outbreaks are “quickly identified and isolated”.
He added: “It was almost inevitable that a case would be confirmed in Wales. I am grateful to the health professionals who have responded so quickly. We now need to ensure that they and the health workforce have the support they need to keep the public safe and ensure that any other new outbreaks are also quickly identified and isolated.
“While there is currently no reason to be concerned in Wales the public is also obliged to realise that this is a very serious public health issue and that every directive issued is followed – especially by people returning from certain areas.
“We will have an opportunity in the Senedd next week to press the Welsh Government to ensure that appropriate resources are provided locally and nationally to put us in a strong position as a country to deal with this.”
Italy has become the worst-affected country in Europe, with at least 650 cases and 15 deaths.
A tourist on the Diamond Princess cruise ship has become the first Briton to die from coronavirus.
The Japanese Ministry of Health said the man was the sixth person from the ship, which has been quarantined off the country’s coast amid the outbreak, to have died.
A UK Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Japan and are in contact with local authorities. Our sympathies and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”
In the UK, 19 people have now been diagnosed with the illness.
Health authorities ordered a 14-day quarantine for all on board the Diamond Princess, which had an original population of 3,711 passengers, on February 5.
Passengers who had tested negative were allowed to disembark at the end of the two weeks.
A family member of David and Sally Abel, who had been on board the ship and were both diagnosed with coronavirus, confirmed the couple were “doing well and fighting fit”, adding: “They are getting stronger every day.”
Princess Cruises, which operates the Diamond Princess ship, have offered their condolences to the British man’s friends and family.
Worldwide, the list of countries hit by Covid-19 is edging towards 60 with Mexico, Belarus, Lithuania, New Zealand, Nigeria, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands reporting their first cases.
Director general of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, has said the outbreak “has pandemic potential”.
Globally, more than 85,000 people have fallen ill with Covid-19. China, though hardest hit, has seen lower numbers of new infections, with 327 additional cases reported yesterday, bringing the country’s total to 78,824. Another 44 people died there for a total of 2,788.
South Korea has recorded 2,337 cases, the most outside of China. Emerging clusters in Italy and in Iran, which has had 34 deaths and 388 cases, have in turn led to infections of people in other countries.
France and Germany are also seeing increases, with dozens of infections. Some have attempted to exploit the crisis for financial gain, with 20 people in Italy arrested for selling masks they fraudulently claimed provided complete protection from the virus.
Police said they were selling them for as much as €5,000 (£4,271) each.
BORIS Johnson is under fire for waiting until next week to chair his first meeting of the Government’s Cobra contingencies committee on the coronavirus outbreak.
Downing Street announced the Prime Minister would head the meeting of ministers and senior officials in Whitehall on Monday.
A No.10 spokesman said this followed the sharp increase in the number of cases of Covid-19 in mainland Europe – prompting fears it is only a matter of time before they start rising in the UK.
But Labour again accused Mr Johnson of acting as a “part-time prime minister”, saying he should be taking action immediately to take control of the situation.
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Our part-time prime minister needs to get a grip of this escalating situation quickly. It shouldn’t take another three days for this meeting to take place.”
Former chancellor George Osborne said Mr Johnson should be chairing a daily Cobra meeting, saying the public needed to know that ministers had the situation under control.
“The British Government now needs to go onto a ‘war footing’ with the coronavirus: daily NHS press briefings, regular Cobra meetings chaired by the PM, ministers on all major media shows,” Mr Osborne, who now edits the London Evening Standard, tweeted.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “With the NHS already so stretched, it’s gobsmacking that the Prime Minister has delayed chairing Cobra for so long.
“Johnson seems like he’d rather bury his head in the sand than hear for himself what the experts are saying and what his ministers are doing.”
Downing Street said officials from the Department of Health, Public Health England and other relevant departments were meeting on a daily basis to discuss the crisis, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock had been chairing a weekly Cobra meeting.
Those will now be stepped up to take place twice weekly.
“The Prime Minister is keen to chair Cobra on Monday to ensure that everything that can be done is being done,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also disclosed that Mr Johnson had spent half of the night shift on Thursday visiting Kettering Hospital where senior clinicians had talked him through their preparations.
The latest criticism of Mr Johnson followed complaints he has failed to visit any of the most recently floodhit areas of the country.
Mr Ashworth said the Prime Minister should now end the ban on ministers appearing on some news shows, including the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, in the interests of ensuring the public is kept fully informed.
“People are understandably worried. Boris Johnson should drop his childish ban on ministers appearing on BBC radio programmes,” he said.
“The public deserves to hear what plans are in place to deal with the outbreak.”
THE UK’s leading index of companies has seen its sharpest weekly fall since the middle of the financial crisis as markets lost 3.2% yesterday.
The bloodbath that has gripped markets for days continued, wiping more than £200bn off shares on the FTSE 100 this week, as traders panicked over the spread of coronavirus.
It includes a major drop yesterday, with the index losing 215.79 points to 6,580.61 as the blue chip index posted its worst week since October 2008, the depths of the financial crisis.
In terms of points lost, it is also the FTSE 100’s second worst week since the index was founded in 1984.
It means the index reached its lowest point since just after the June 2016 EU referendum.
“Seemingly determined to outdo themselves, the markets unleashed another round of scary losses on Friday afternoon, the US open only serving to intensify the bloodbath,” said Connor Campbell, an analyst at Spreadex.
He added: “What on earth happens next? The weekend may provide time for heads to cool and allow investors to assess whether or not they want to re-enter the market at these new lows – after all, from a certain perspective the market is now far more approachable than when it was racing to all-time highs just last week.”
The worst losers in London were the airlines, with British Airways owner IAG and travel group Tui seeing a more than 8% drop in share price.
Elsewhere around the wortd, stocks opened sharply lower on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing 463 points, or 1.8%, to 25,311; the S&P 500 losing 54 points, or 1.8%, to 2,922; and the Nasdaq falling 143 points, or 1.7%, to 8,423.
Germany’s DAX fell as much as 5% before stabilising and Tokyo and Shanghai closed 3.7% lower.