Police can force virus carriers into quarantine
Unprecedented powers granted as outbreak is labelled a ‘serious and imminent threat’
POLICE have been handed unprecedented powers to force those at risk of coronavirus into quarantine, amid fears two GPS may have passed the virus on to their patients.
The measures have been put in place with immediate effect as the Health Secretary warned that the spread of the virus was now a “serious and imminent threat” to the British public.
Yesterday, the number of cases in the UK doubled, with panic in Brighton and the closure of a busy GP practice, as two doctors were diagnosed with the disease.
An unnamed businessman, who contracted the virus in Singapore, is linked to at least 11 infections among fellow Britons at a French ski resort.
The 11 include five people who fell ill after returning to the UK, two of whom recently worked as GPS in Brighton.
One, Catriona Greenwood, had been working at the city’s County Oak medical centre, which yesterday closed to the public. Bob Saynor, her environmental consultant husband, and their nine-year-old son are among five Britons being treated in France. Officials said they were urgently working to identify any patients and healthcare workers who may have come into close contact with the GPS, who were not named by the authorities.
Patients were advised to contact the NHS 111 service if they had concerns.
Under the legal powers, police can use reasonable force, if necessary, to detain those who may be contaminated with coronavirus, for up to 14 days.
The regulations were brought in with instant effect yesterday, after one of the 93 Britons quarantined in Arrowe Park Hospital, Birkenhead, threatened to abscond. Government sources said the unprecedented measures went further than control of those in the Wirral and Milton Keynes camps.
Under the restrictions, any person deemed at risk of spreading the virus could be held against their will, forcibly assessed, and detained for a twoweek period. Health officials stressed that such judgments would not be taken lightly, with decisions involving the chief medical officer.
Amazon confirmed last night that it had stockpiled Chinese products as a precaution amid the outbreak.
There have been more than 40,000 cases globally, mostly in China where the death toll stands at 908.
All the new cases are linked to the unnamed “super-spreader” who spent four days with them at the ski resort of Les Contamines-montjoie, after he had attended a conference in Singapore.
The businessman returned to Brighton but was not admitted to hospital for five days, and after he had spent the evening at a Hove pub.
In one day, the number of cases diagnosed in the UK rose from four to eight.
Officials are attempting to track down passengers on easyjet flights who may have come into contact with those infected as they flew from Geneva to Gatwick more than a week ago.
A child at a local school has been told to self-isolate for 14 days, while a University of Sussex student was yesterday admitted to hospital for tests.
Several children at other Brighton schools were advised to stay at home.
Meanwhile, a major study found the virus could have an incubation period
of almost a month. Currently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the incubation period to be up to 14 days, and recommends the followup of contacts of confirmed cases is the same period.
As a result, those at risk in the UK are being put into self-isolation, or quarantine, for two weeks.
The study, published last night by Chinese researchers, found the incubation period may actually be as long as 24 days. The study involved 1,099 patients with laboratory-confirmed coronavirus. While the median time for the disease to develop was three days, the time frame ranged from zero to 24 days.
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said the suggestion was “worrying”.
Discussing the recent spread, Neil Ferguson, a professor of mathematical biology at Imperial College London, added: “Potentially, everybody is susceptible so we could be talking about an epidemic that affects 60-80 per cent of the population.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, raised fears yesterday that the cases in France and the UK, involving those with no travel history to China, “could be the spark that becomes the bigger fire”.
Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, said: “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.”
A second practice, Brackley Medical Centre in Northamptonshire, was closed as a precautionary measure but later reopened.