Coronavirus warning as first UK cases feared
UNIVERSITIES are on high alert for coronavirus with students returning from China warned they face quarantine after the first suspected cases were reported in Britain.
Five Chinese patients were isolated at hospitals in Scotland, and one in Belfast, suffering from flu-like conditions after returning from the city of Wuhan in the past fortnight. Public Health England said 14 people had been tested with five confirmed negative and nine awaiting the results,
Prof Jürgen Haas, head of infection medicine at Edinburgh university, said more cases were likely elsewhere in the UK. Tests for Wuhan novel coronavirus were also being carried out on a patient at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. It came as China effectively quarantined 20million people in what could be the largest disease-control operation in history.
Authorities grounded flights, put up road blocks and closed railway stations to prevent residents leaving Wuhan. Restrictions were imposed on five further cities in Hubei province.
The World Health Organisation said it was too early to declare an international health emergency, citing the limited cases outside China and the country’s efforts to contain the virus.
One in five international students in Britain are from China, and Prof Haas suggested Edinburgh was a focal point in the UK because of its large Chinese student population.
Chester university warned students that if they went to China for Chinese New Year they would not be readmitted without a period in quarantine. Wuhan university, in the city where the outbreak began, has partnerships with Aberdeen, Glasgow, Birmingham and Leeds universities and Edinburgh university has partnerships with 42 universities across China. A spokesman for Aberdeen university said five of its staff recently returned from Wuhan, and one was now working from home as a precautionary measure. Newcastle University was hosting 300 students from the region of the outbreak.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the situation would be kept under “close review”.
Prof Haas said: “The situation will be similar in all UK cities with a large number of Chinese students. I suspect there will be many more cases.”
Special measures have been enforced at Queen Elizabeth University,
Glasgow, and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Patients are being isolated and staff made to wear protection suits.
In a statement to the Commons yesterday, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, warned that the situation was developing rapidly and that he expected the global death toll to rise further. He told MPS there had been 571 cases of coronavirus and 18 deaths confirmed by the Chinese government.
He added: “The Chief Medical Officer has revised the risk to the UK population from ‘very low’ to ‘low’ and has concluded that while there is an increased likelihood that cases may arise in this country, we are well prepared to deal with them.”
Confirmed cases were reported in 25 Chinese provinces and the virus had spread to Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and the US.
Avon and Somerset Police closed two police stations in and around Bristol amid fears a Chinese detainee was displaying flu-like symptoms, but reopened them on advice from Public Health England, which had been monitoring direct flights from Wuhan.
Sharon Hodgson, the shadow health secretary, claimed that some passengers had been allowed to leave on flights from China with little or no advice. But Mr Hancock said he would “not hesitate to act” if it became necessary to screen more flights into Britain.
The World Health Organisation is to meet again to decide whether to declare a global public health emergency and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is advising against all but essential travel to Hubei province.
Prof Neil Ferguson, the director of the Medical Research Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis, estimated those infected with coronavirus in Wuhan to be between 1,000 and 9,700.