Race to find source of Surrey virus infection
HEALTH officials were last night trying to establish how a Surrey man contracted coronavirus amid concern that a contagious person is unaware they are infectious.
The patient became the first person to catch the illness within the UK, prompting claims this represented a new phase in the spread of the disease.
As the total of Covid-19 infections in the UK rose yesterday to 23, the Surrey case was the only one in which the patient was not infected after being abroad in virus hotspots. The focus on the county intensified when a Surrey pub closed for a deep clean after a customer tested positive for the virus.
The Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England and Public Health England last night refused to confirm if a Surrey-based doctor who may have treated the patient was taken to a specialist unit on Friday with symptoms of the virus. Although he has not yet been diagnosed with the condition, the Haslemere Health Centre in the county temporarily closed after a deep clean.
It reopened just before Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary and South West Surrey MP, wrote online he was thinking of staff and patients at the surgery: “Thoughts today with new Covid-19 patient and local GP with symptoms alongside their families.”
It is believed the Surrey doctor’s wife is a medic, too. It is not known if she has shown any symptoms or is “self-isolating” as a precaution.
Staff at the surgery refused to comment but one said: “I’m not allowed to say anything. I really don’t want to get into trouble.” If a doctor is infected, it is a particular concern as they likely would have close contact with vulnerable patients at appointments.
A statement from the Prince of Wales pub in Haslemere said it had closed until further notice for a deep clean after a “customer who visited tested positive for coronavirus”.
It added: “We are all well, no symptoms. This is purely a precautionary measure. We are just trying to do our bit to help.”
It is not known if that customer was the Surrey patient who may have gone to the Haslemere Health Centre.
Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, said it was not clear if the Surrey man had contracted the virus “directly or indirectly” from somebody who had recently travelled abroad.
Ruth Hutchinson, Surrey county council’s interim director of public health, said she was in continuous contact with Public Health England.
If it is confirmed a Surrey doctor has the virus he would be the second GP to contract the illness. The first was a medic in Brighton who worked at Worthing Hospital.
Of the three cases announced yesterday, two patients had returned from Italy and the other from Asia. Officials are trying to trace their contacts.
The patients are from Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire and Berkshire. Last night, a staff member at Willow Bank Infant School in Reading, Berks, was said to have tested positive.
The Foreign Office said it was supporting the family of a Briton, who lived abroad, who became the first UK citizen to die from the virus. The man, believed to have been in his 70s, was on board the Diamond Princess liner quarantined off Japan and was the sixth person from the ship to have died.
David Abel and his wife Sally from Northamptonshire had also been on board and are undergoing treatment for the virus in hospital. In a YouTube video, Mr Abel said: “Sad news this morning. We awakened to hear that one of the Brits has sadly passed away in hospital out here in Japan.
“Our thoughts, our concern is for all of the families left behind. We are fortunate, we’re doing OK, we’re being really, really well cared for.”
More than 700 tourists have become infected on the Diamond Princess.