Cold or flu symptoms? Get ready to be told to stay home
ANYONE with cold, flu or a fever is likely to be asked to stay at home in self-isolation as medical experts and the Government attempt to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Yesterday the number of cases in the UK rose to more than 300 and the death toll reached five.
The Department of Health said 319 people have tested positive for Covid-19, up from 273 on Sunday.
Two more cases were in Wales, bringing its total cases to six, Wales’ chief medical officer confirmed.
One patient from Neath Port Talbot had recently returned from northern Italy while the second from Newport had returned from southern Italy. They are not linked.
Dr Frank Atherton said both were being treated in “clinically-appropriate settings” and that Wales was prepared for further cases.
The Welsh Government announced the country’s 640 GP surgeries will receive packs of face masks, gloves and aprons for their personal protection as they treat people with suspected coronavirus.
Personal protection equipment was also authorised to be released from stockpiles for use by frontline NHS and social services staff.
It was announced that Wales v Scotland will go ahead on Saturday despite the weekend’s other two Six Nations clashes being cancelled.
RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said: “I think it looks good, I don’t see any reason why that won’t proceed.”
ANYONE with cold, flu or a fever is likely to be asked to stay at home in self-isolation before too long, England’s chief medical officer has said.
Professor Chris Whitty said the number of cases in the UK is going up and pointed to tighter measures aimed at protecting the public, particularly the vulnerable and elderly.
It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters the UK will almost certainly move to the delay phase of tackling coronavirus.
As of 9am yesterday, 319 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the UK, up from 273 at the same point on Sunday, while five people have died in British hospitals.
The latest patient was in their seventies and was unwell with a number of significant and long-term health conditions. They died at St Helier Hospital.
During a London press conference, Prof Whitty said: “We are expecting the numbers to increase initially slowly but really quite fast after a while and we have to catch it before the upswing begins.
“We are now very close to the time, probably within the next 10 to 14 days, when the modelling would imply we should move to a situation where everybody with even minor respiratory tract infections or a fever should be self-isolating for a period of seven days.”
Mr Johnson said there was “no hiding from the fact that the coronavirus outbreak will present significant challenges for the UK just as it does in other countries”.
“But if we continue to look out for one another, to pull together in a united and national effort, I have no doubt that we can and will rise to that challenge,” he added.
The PM praised the “truly brilliant NHS” and its staff but suggested the elderly and vulnerable could be asked to stay home in the near future.
He said: “We will set out further steps in the days and weeks ahead to help people protect themselves, their family and in particularly the elderly and vulnerable.”
The UK remains in the “contain” phase of the response to coronavirus “but watching what is happening around the world, our scientists think containment is extremely unlikely to work on its own”, he continued.
“That is why we are making extensive preparations for a move to the delay phase. We are preparing various actions to slow the spread of this
disease in order to reduce the strain it places on the NHS. The more we can delay the peak of the spread to the summer, the better the NHS will be able to manage.”
The PM also reiterated that people should continue to wash their hands for 20 seconds each time with soap and water.
Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, told reporters: “Some of them (the measures they are looking at) are about protecting all of us – it is about us being good citizens to protect each other. Some of them are about protecting ourselves. It is important we do both.”
Prof Whitty said anybody with a serious enough respiratory infection that they need hospital treatment will now be tested and counted in coronavirus figures, alongside those in intensive care as at present.
He said it was important not to ask people to start practising social distancing measures too soon, saying:
“What we are moving now to is a phase when we will be having to ask members of the general public to do different things than they would normally do.”
He stressed the importance of timing because “anything we do, we have got to be able to sustain” throughout the peak of the outbreak.
“There is a risk if we go too early people will understandably get fatigued and it will be difficult to sustain this over time,” he said. “So getting the timing right is absolutely critical to making this work.”
The comments come as Tedros Ghebreyesus, director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), told reporters the global spread of Covid19 made a pandemic threat “very real”.
He said: “Now that the virus has a foothold in so many countries, the threat of a pandemic has become very real. But it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled. The bottom line is that we’re not at the mercy of the virus.”
Earlier, Prof Whitty said the fourth patient with Covid-19 to die was in their seventies with underlying health conditions and was being treated at the Royal Wolverhampton Hospital. They are thought to have contracted it in the UK.
In other developments: Transport for London confirmed a staff member had tested positive;
a pupil at Rugby Free Secondary School in Warwickshire is self-isolating at home after being diagnosed with Covid-19;
the House of Commons and House of Lords’ ruling bodies said there were “no plans to suspend Parliament” but the response to the outbreak was under constant review;
University Hospital Southampton closed its surgical high-dependency unit to new admissions after a staff member tested positive;
Public Health England (PHE) will roll out enhanced monitoring of flights from all parts of Italy from tomorrow;
The France vs Ireland Six Nations rugby match due to be held in Paris on Saturday was postponed on the advice of national authorities;
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said cancelling sports events and shutting museums and galleries due to coronavirus would be “premature”; and
all St Patrick’s Day parades in the Republic of Ireland are to be cancelled in a bid to stop the spread of Covid-19.
Last night Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said he was extending restrictions on travel from the north to the entire country to try to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Mr Conte said a new government decree will require all people in Italy to demonstrate a need to work, health conditions or other limited reasons to travel outside the areas where they live.
“There won’t be just a red zone,” he told reporters, referring to a lockdown of areas in northern Italy instituted over the weekend.
“There will be Italy” as a protected area, he said. The restrictions will take effect today.