Coronavirus: UK warns of ‘serious and imminent threat’ as infections double to 8
- Government has announced new measures to deal with the coronavirus, including the power to forcibly quarantine people infected
- British man who caught the virus at a business conference in Singapore in January appears to be linked to at least seven other confirmed cases in Europe
The UK Department of Health and Social Care said people with the virus can now be forcibly quarantined and will not be free to leave. It named two British specialist hospitals in London as isolation facilities for those affected: Guy’s and St. Thomas’ and The Royal Free in London. It also designated the Chinese city of Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province where the virus first emerged as a “infected area”.
It said the number of virus cases in Britain has doubled to eight, with the four new cases reported Monday all known contacts of an earlier UK case, a person who was infected in France. Experts at Public Health England were working hard to trace people who have come into contact with confirmed cases.
“The incidence or transmission of novel coronavirus constitutes a serious and imminent threat to public health, and the measures outlined in these regulations are considered as an effective means of delaying or preventing further transmission of the virus,” the agency said in a statement.
It added that the changes were designed to ensure the health and safety of both patients and medical workers who came into contact with infected people.
The change comes after a British man who caught the virus at a business conference in Singapore in January appears to be linked to at least seven other confirmed cases in Europe.
Five British citizens, including a nine-year-old boy, contracted the virus in the French Alpine ski town of Contamines-Montjoie after staying in the same chalet as the British man. French medical authorities tested scores of children and their families Sunday from the area for the new virus and temporarily closed three schools where the boy had spent time.
China on Monday said 908 people had died of the virus on the mainland and more than 40,170 had been infected. More than 360 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China, including two deaths in Hong Kong and the Philippines.