UK coronavirus cases surge to 87 as fears of an epidemic grow
The UK has seen its biggest dayon-day increase in coronavirus cases, with 87 people now confirmed to have the virus.
Three of the 32 new cases recorded in England were passed on in the UK, raising fears that community transmission may now be taking hold.
The jump comes as England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned that a UK epidemic is looking “likely”.
A sole positive case of infection currently remains confirmed in Wales.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister announced new sick pay changes as part of emergency coronavirus legislation so that anyone self-isolating is paid from day one rather than day four as current rules state.
Prof 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.”
The Department of Health has been updating the UK figures daily, with one Northern Ireland case among the 85 recorded at 2pm yesterday. However, Northern Ireland later confirmed two more cases, taking the UK total to 87.
Earlier, Prof Whitty told the BBC there could be a need to do “extreme things” to protect the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions.
He added: “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”.
On the NHS, Prof Whitty said: “The NHS will always cope because the NHS is an emergency service which is very good at adapting to what it finds itself with.”
But he said if the UK sees a very large epidemic, “then it will put very high pressure on the NHS”, and there could be “several weeks which could be very difficult” for the health service and wider society.
Prof Whitty suggested that shutting down cities in the UK would not be effective now.
He said: “Closing cities is really only appropriate if you have a significant epidemic in one particular place and almost nothing anywhere else. It made sense for China to respond in the way it did but it would be very unlikely here... This is now in multiple places in Europe and around the world.”
As cases in the UK climb, the Department of Health said it would no “longer be tweeting information on the location of each new case”.