‘Do not close schools or send people home over virus’
HEALTH OFFICIALS are to tell schools that they do not need to close or send staff and pupils home if there is a suspected case of coronavirus.
Public Health England (PHE) were expected to issue new guidance to schools today saying that no restrictions or special control measures are needed while tests for Covid-19 are carried out on a suspected case.
While a pupil or staff member suspected of coming into contact with the virus is being tested, the guidance says no action is needed. If a case of the virus is confirmed, then health protection teams will speak to the head teacher and action will be taken.
The new guidance comes the week after at least seven schools in Brighton, Hove and Eastbourne were understood to have told parents that either a staff member or pupil has been advised to stay at home for 14 days by PHE.
Schools messaged parents saying that they would authorise absences for families wishing to self-isolate.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said on Sunday that 3,109 tests have been carried out in the UK so far, with nine positive results.
If the number of cases rises significantly, anyone with coughs and colds may be asked to stay home to limit the chance of the outbreak spreading.
The DHSC did not comment when asked about the self-isolation direction.
A spokesman for NHS England revealed on Saturday that all 94 people in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral had been released.
They had been kept in isolation at the hospital after returning to the UK from Wuhan in China which has been the centre of the outbreak.
More than 100 people yesterday remained in isolation at the Kents Hill Park Hotel in Milton Keynes after being on a later rescue flight from China, the NHS added.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “I am also pleased that eight of the nine individuals who tested positive for coronavirus have now been successfully treated and discharged from hospital.
“I want to stress that any individuals who are discharged from hospital are now well and do not pose any public health risk to the public.
“Again, this is evidence of how well prepared our NHS is to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus.”
It comes after the first death from the virus outside Asia was confirmed in France on Saturday.
French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn revealed that an elderly
Chinese tourist had become the first death to the virus in Europe, Reuters reported.
The patient, who was a Chinese tourist from the province of Hubei that includes Wuhan, had arrived in France on January 16 and suffered a lung infection caused by the coronavirus.
The death toll in mainland China had yesterday risen by 142 to 1,665 fatalities.
Chinese authorities also reported that the number of new cases has fallen for the third straight day to 2,009.
The number of people who have been infected by the coronavirus globally stands at 68,500, according to the country’s National Health Commission.