‘NOTHING CAN STOP’ VIRUS SWEEPING BRITAIN
After UK’s biggest daily spike in cases, chief medical officer warns...
CORONAVIRUS will inevitably claim lives as it spreads across Britain.
The grim forecast by the chief medical officer came as cases of the disease jumped by 36 yesterday – the biggest daily increase so far – taking the total number of infections to 87.
Professor Chris Whitty delivered the news to a nation alarmed by the rapid
spread of the potentially deadly respiratory infection.
Prof Whitty said: “It is almost certain there will be more cases in the UK, probably a lot more cases, and we would expect some deaths.
“It’s much more likely than not that we’re going to deal with a significant epidemic.”
Last night the epidemic is thought to have brought the airline Flybe to the brink of collapse.
Planes were last night grounded at Glasgow and passengers were turned away amid fears the ailing airline will go bust with 2,000 jobs at risk.
The Exeter-based low-cost carrier was hit by a slump in bookings following the outbreak of coronavirus. It risks falling into administration as early as today as it struggles to secure a £100million loan.
It came as medical experts warned last night it is likely there will be dozens of undiagnosed coronavirus cases, which could spread the disease further.
Last night, a government source confirmed a UK-wide outbreak was inescapable. The source said: “In reality, that does look inevitable. Significantly more cases have been identified.
“Both the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary have said they do expect this to get worse. We are prepared for this.”
Latest figures show there have been 95,178 cases of coronavirus globally and 3,254 deaths. Health officials refused to reveal exactly whereabouts in the UK the infected patients were diagnosed but said 80 have been in England, three in Scotland, three in Northern Ireland and one in Wales.
One of the cases is a female NHS worker in her 30s in Cumbria who caught the virus while on a family holiday in Italy.
Three other workers in the health service are known to be among the 87 infected. This follows cases in Bury, Wirral, Swansea, Brighton, Gloucestershire, Devon, Berkshire, West Sussex, Surrey,
Kent, London, Essex, Hertfordshire, Leeds, Bradford, York and Belfast.
Prof Whitty, England and Wales chief medical officer, said: “If we get established transmission in the UK, which I think at this time is more likely than not, then there will be a number of weeks until we start to see a significant amount of transmission.
“The key thing is we will need to do a variety of interventions. But we do not want to do them too early, because we’ll then need to sustain them through the epidemic. So what we’re trying to do is plan to do them at exactly the right point to minimise social disruption, but still manage to reduce the impact of this epidemic.
“With all epidemics, what happens is they start off very slowly and then they gradually gather momentum and then they suddenly go up relatively fast.”
The main health advice to combat the spread is frequent handwashing with hot water and soap, avoiding close contact with people who are ill and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
Public Health England said there could be an effective ban on handshakes as Britain braces itself for the mass arrival of the virus.
PHE medical director Prof Paul Cosford said: “We may get to a point where if we see more widespread infection, we ask people to limit the social contact they have with each other. ”
Boris Johnson last night spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss cross-Channel
cooperation to tackle the virus. Under battle plans being drawn up for a worst case scenario, millions could be forced to work from home. Officials fear up to a fifth of Britain’s 30 million workforce could be off sick during the impending peak of the epidemic.
The Department of Health said last night: “We want to ensure any steps taken to protect the public during the outbreak are proportionate and do not come at an unnecessary social or economic cost.”