Healthcare workers among four new virus cases

TWO OF the four people newly diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK are healthcare workers, Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed.

Eight people in the UK have now been diagnosed with the virus, with five of those closely linked to a businessman who was told he had it last week in Brighton.

Health experts say it is now known the new cases announced yesterday are all closely linked to one another.

In a statement, PHE medical director Yvonne Doyle said: “Our priority has been to speak to those who have close and sustained contact with confirmed cases, so we can advise them on what they can do to limit the spread of the virus.

“Two of these new cases are healthcare workers and as soon as they were identified, we advised them to self-isolate in order to keep patient contact to a minimum.

“We are now working urgently to identify all patients and other healthcare workers who may have come into close contact, and at this stage we believe this to be a relatively small number.”

The businessman diagnosed in Brighton contracted the virus at a conference in Singapore. He stopped off at a chalet in a ski region of France, where five other Britons were subsequently taken ill with the virus, before heading back to the UK.

The Department of Health confirmed the four people newlydiagnosed contracted the virus in France and are being treated at specialist infection centres at St Thomas’ and the Royal Free hospitals in London.

It was reported that the four people are three men, one of whom is a doctor, and one woman. As the new cases were announced, the County Oak Medical Centre in Brighton closed its doors “because of an urgent operational health and safety reason”.

One of those newly-diagnosed is reported to be a health worker there. In France, the five British nationals were diagnosed after they came into contact with the businessman, according to the French health ministry.

The four adults and a nineyear-old child, who are not in a serious condition, were staying in the Alpine resort area of Contamines-Montjoie near Mont Blanc.

EasyJet confirmed that the businessman flew from Geneva to Gatwick on January 28 on flight EZS8481, and Public Health England is trying to trace other passengers. A fourth UK case, diagnosed on Sunday, who is being treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London, is also “a known contact of a previously confirmed UK case, and the virus was passed on in France”, England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty said.

The businessman is also linked to a British man in Majorca who tested positive for coronavirus, while his wife and two daughters tested negative. The developments come as the Government declared coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health”.

Announcing new legal powers yesterday, the Department of Health said people with coronavirus can now be forcibly quarantined, and can be forcibly sent into isolation if they pose a threat. It is understood the decision was in response to one of the Britons who returned from Wuhan in China, the source of the outbreak, attempting to leave hospital on Merseyside.