Ministers: Virus will be here this week

THE coronavirus is set to reach Britain this week, ministers were warned yesterday.

By last night 52 people in the UK had been tested for the virus with none coming back positive.

But a Department of Health source said the Government’s ‘working assumption’ is that the virus will be here this week.

‘We are preparing that it could be here in the next few days,’ the source said. ‘If you look at the way it is spreading – there are now three cases in France – it is reasonable to expect it will get here.’

Anyone found to have the virus will be placed in immediate isolation and treated in a specialist infectious diseases unit. Measures are in place to then establish the patient’s movements in the previous fortnight and trace those with whom they have been in contact.

NHS staff have also been placed on high alert and given instructions about what to do.

An 11-page document prepared for hospitals by Public Health England says: ‘In the absence of effective drugs or a vaccine, control of this disease relies on the prompt identification, appropriate risk assessment, management and isolation of possible cases.’

England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, has said there is a ‘fair chance’ coronavirus will reach the UK. He warned: ‘What we don’t know is how far it’s going to spread – we need to plan for all eventualities.’

A ‘rapid response team’ of British doctors and public health officials is on standby to fly out and assist any country that wants help. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has also ordered officials to fasttrack work on a potential vaccination, although sources acknowledge it remains ‘a long way off’.

A meeting of the Government’s emergency committee Cobra was told on Friday that the coronavirus appears to have a relatively low fatality rate, with about two to three per cent of those infected dying. This compares with a 10 per cent death rate for the Sars virus that caused a similar international alert between 2002 and 2003.

The committee was warned, however, that there is a risk that the virus will mutate, making human to human transmission easier. In the best case scenario, the virus will be contained largely in China, with just isolated cases outside, a source said.

Concerns about its spread have been amplified because of its lengthy incubation period of up to two weeks. UK officials are continuing to track down around 2,000 people who have recently flown into the UK from Wuhan, the area worst affected by the outbreak.

A public health hub has been set up in Heathrow, staffed by a rotating team of seven clinicians working in shifts to support patients on arrival.