How one man spread coronavirus from Singapore to UK via the Alps, without setting foot in China
- Super-spreader has been identified as Steve Walsh, a 53-year-old boy scout leader and businessman who passed on virus to at least 11 others
- Authorities are now trying to track down passengers who took the same flight as he did from Geneva back to the UK
The so-called super-spreader has been identified as Steve Walsh, a 53-year-old boy scout leader and businessman who works for a British natural gas analytics company called Servomex. He was attending a business conference at the Grant Hyatt hotel in Singapore and is believed to have contracted the virus there.
On Tuesday, he issued a statement from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, where he is recovering.
“As soon as I knew I had been exposed to a confirmed case of coronavirus, I contacted my GP, NHS 111 and Public Health England,” the 53-year-old said. “I was advised to attend an isolated room at hospital, despite showing no symptoms, and subsequently self-isolated at home as instructed.
“When the diagnosis was confirmed I was sent to an isolation unit in hospital, where I remain, and, as a precaution, my family was also asked to isolate themselves.”
After becoming infected in Singapore, Walsh passed the virus on to several compatriots while on holiday in the French Alps, before finally being diagnosed back in the UK. Of those infected by the man, five have been hospitalised in France, five in Britain and one other man on the Spanish island of Mallorca.