UK’s health minister Nadine Dorries has been
diagnosed with coronavirus.
She showed symptoms on the day she attended an
event with PM Boris Johnson.
Nadine Dorries, 62, said she has been self-isolating at home.
The Department of Health said the minister first showed symptoms on March 5
– the same day she attended an event hosted by the prime minister.
Six people with the virus have died in the UK, which has a total of 382
cases.
The latest person to die was a man in his early 80s who had underlying
health conditions.
The Bank of England earlier announced an emergency cut in interest rates
from 0.75% to 0.25% in response to the economic impact of the coronavirus
outbreak
It is not known how many meetings Nadine Dorries had attended at Westminster
or in her constituency in recent days, but she was at an event at Downing
Street on March 5 to mark International Women’s Day.
She also held a surgery in her constituency on March 6 which was attended by
up to 12 people, according to Steven Dixon, chair of the Mid Bedfordshire
Conservative Association.
Steven Dixon said the details of all those who attended the surgery have
been passed to the NHS.
The Flitwick Club, where the surgery took place, is undergoing a deep clean
as a precaution.
The Department of Health said ministers – including the prime minister –
would not need to undergo testing as Public Health England (PHE) has assessed
the risk of Nadine Dorries’ close contacts and only those with symptoms needed
to self-isolate.
Nadine Dorries added she was worried about her 84-year-old mother who was
staying with her and began to cough on March 10.
The number of total cases for the UK include 324 cases in England, 27 in
Scotland, 16 in Northern Ireland and 15 in Wales.
There are 91 in London, with the next highest infected area being the south-east,
with 51 cases. The latest person to die, on March 9, was a man in his 80s, with
underlying health conditions, who was being treated at Watford General
Hospital.
The man caught the virus in the UK and officials are trying to trace who he had been in contact with.
On February 26, the World Health Organization said that for the first time
the virus was spreading faster outside China, where it originated.
Globally, more than 80,000 people in about 40 countries have been infected
with the new coronavirus, which emerged in December. The vast majority remain
in China.
Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, has
killed more than 2,700 people so far.
On February 26, authorities reported a total of 400 cases – a rise of 80
from February 25.
The worst-affected areas are in the industrial north of Italy – Lombardy,
the region around Milan, and Veneto near Venice. The outbreak has killed 12
people in the country so far.
Government officials have sought to reassure the public, and insisted steps
were being taken to prevent the spread of the disease.
Schools, universities and cinemas have been closed and several public events
cancelled.
Eleven towns at the epicenter of the outbreak – home to a total of 55,000
people – have been quarantined.
There are fears that the outbreak may tip Italy into economic recession.
EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told reporters after meeting the
Italian health minister in Rome: “This
is a situation of concern, but we must not give in to panic.
“There are still many unknowns about this virus and in
particular its origin and how it spreads.”
In the past two days, Austria,
Croatia, Greece, Norway, Switzerland, Georgia and North Macedonia reported
their first coronavirus cases. Many of them involved people who had been to
Italy.
Most coronavirus infections are in China,
the original source of the virus, where 77,000 people have the disease and
nearly 2,600 have died. The number of new cases there is now falling.
More than 1,200 cases have been confirmed in about 30 other countries and
there have been more than 20 deaths. Italy reported four more deaths on
February 24, raising the total there to seven.
China’s government announced a ban on the consumption of wild animals and a
crackdown on the hunting, transportation and trade of prohibited species, state
media say.
It is thought that the outbreak originated at a market in the city of Wuhan
selling wild animals.
On February 24, China reported 409 new infections, the bulk of which were in
Wuhan.
South Korea has the largest number of confirmed cases outside China. On February 24, the Asian country reported another 231 COVID-19 infections on taking the total there to more than 830. Eight people have died.
Around 7,700 troops have been quarantined after 11 military members were
infected.
However, the biggest virus clusters have been linked to a hospital and a
religious group near the south-eastern city of Daegu.
Italy has the largest number of cases in Europe, 229, and
announced a series of drastic measures over the weekend to try to contain the
outbreak.
In the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, a lock-down is in place in several
small towns. For the next two weeks, 50,000 residents will not be able to leave
without special permission.
Even outside the zone, many businesses and schools have suspended
activities, and sporting events have been cancelled.
Three deaths announced on February 24 were all in Lombardy, Italian media
reported.
It is not yet clear how the virus entered the country, officials said.
On
February 23, Iran announced it had 61 confirmed cases of coronavirus,
most of them in the holy city of Qom. Twelve of those infected have died, the
highest number of deaths outside China.
On February 24, a lawmaker in Qom accused the government of covering up the
extent of the outbreak, saying there were 50 deaths in the city alone. However,
the country’s deputy health minister quickly denied the claim.
On the same day, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain reported their first cases, all involving people who had come from Iran. Officials in Bahrain said the patient infected there was a school bus driver, and several schools had been closed as a result.
Chinese health officials have released the first details of more than 44,000 cases of new coronavirus, Covid-19, in the largest study since the outbreak began.
Data from the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC) finds
that more than 80% of the cases have been mild, with the sick and elderly most
at risk.
The research also points to the high risk to medical staff.
On February 18, a hospital director in the city of Wuhan died from the virus.
Liu Zhiming, 51, was the director of the Wuchang Hospital in Wuhan – one of
the leading hospitals in the virus epicenter. He is one of the most senior
health officials to die so far.
Hubei, whose capital is Wuhan, is the worst affected province in China.
The report by the CCDC shows the
province’s death rate is 2.9% compared with 0.4% in the rest of the country.
The findings put the overall death
rate of the coronavirus at 2.3%.
China’s latest official figures
released on February 18 put the overall death toll at 1,868 and 72,436
infections.
Officials reported 98 new deaths and
1,886 new cases in the past day, with 93 of those deaths and 1,807 infections in
Hubei province – the epicenter of the outbreak.
According to Chinese authorities, more
than 12,000 people have recovered.
The study, published in the Chinese Journal of Epidemiology on
February 17, looked at more than 44,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in China as
of February 11.
While the results largely confirm previous descriptions of the virus and
patterns of infection, the study includes a detailed breakdown of the 44,672
confirmed cases across all of China.
The study finds that 80.9% of infections are classified as mild, 13.8% as
severe and only 4.7% as critical. The number of deaths among those infected,
known as the fatality rate, remains low but rises among those over 80 years
old.
Looking at the sex ratio, men are more likely to die (2.8%) than women
(1.7%).
The research also identifies which existing illnesses put patients at risk.
It puts cardiovascular disease at number one, followed by diabetes, chronic
respiratory disease and hypertension.
Pointing out the risk to medical staff, the study says that a total of
3,019 health workers have been infected, 1,716 of which were
confirmed cases. Five had died by February 11, which was the last day of
data included in the research.
On February 13, China broadened its definition of how to diagnose people,
including “clinically diagnosed cases” which previously were counted
separate from “confirmed cases”.
Looking forward, the study finds that
“the epidemic curve of onset of symptoms”
peaked around January 23-26 before declining up to February 11.
It suggests that the downward trend in the overall
epidemic curve could mean that “isolation of whole
cities, broadcast of critical information (e.g., promoting hand
washing, mask wearing, and care seeking) with high frequency through
multiple channels, and mobilization of a multi-sector rapid
response teams is helping to curb the epidemic”.
The authors also warn that with many people returning from a long holiday,
the country “needs to prepare for the possible rebound of the epidemic”.
China’s response to the new coronavirus has seen the lockdown of Wuhan – the largest city in Hubei – and the rest of the province as well as severe travel restrictions on movements across the country.
According to the WHO, there was also no major shift in the coronavirus’s
pattern of mortality or severity.
On February 12, Hubei recorded 242 deaths, the deadliest day of the
outbreak.
There was also a huge increase in cases, with 14,840 people diagnosed but
most of this was down to Hubei using a broader definition to diagnose people,
said Mike Ryan, head of WHO’s health emergencies program.
He said: “This does not represent
a significant change in the trajectory of the outbreak.”
Outside China there had been two deaths and 447 cases in 24 countries, he
said.
On February 13, Japan announced its first coronavirus death – a woman in her
80s who lived in Kanagawa, south-west of Tokyo.
The woman’s diagnosis was confirmed after her death and she had no obvious
link to China’s Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak, Japanese media
reported.
The Diamond Princess cruise ship is in quarantine in Yokohama. Not all the
3,700 people on board have been tested yet.
People with the virus are taken to hospitals on land to be treated, while
those on board are largely confined to their cabins.
On February 13, Japan said it would
allow those aged 80 or over who have tested negative for the coronavirus to
disembark.
Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said
they could be allowed off the ship as early as February 14 but would have to
stay in accommodation provided by the government, the Japan Times reported.
Meanwhile another cruise ship – the
MS Westerdam – carrying more than 2,000 people docked in Cambodia after being
turned away by ports in Japan, Taiwan, Guam, the Philippines and Thailand
despite having no sick patients on board.
Until February 13 increases, the number of people with the virus in Hubei
was stabilizing.
The new cases and deaths in the province have pushed the national death toll
above 1,350 with almost 60,000 infections in total.
White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said there had been
“surprise” in the US at the new cases.
He said: “We’re a little
disappointed in the lack of transparency coming from the Chinese, these numbers
are jumping around.”
The Trump administration was also disappointed that China had not accepted a
US offer to send experts to help China respond to the outbreak, Larry Kudlow
said.
China sacked two top officials in Hubei province hours after the new figures
were revealed.
Only Hubei province – which accounts for more than 80% of overall Chinese infections – is using the new definition to diagnose new cases.
The spread of the deadly coronavirus is
accelerating, Chinese President Xi Jinping warned, after holding a special
government meeting on the Lunar New Year public holiday.
China is facing a “grave situation” President Xi told senior
officials.
The new virus has killed at least 56 people and infected almost 2,000 since
its discovery in the city of Wuhan.
Meanwhile, the US has announced that staff at the Wuhan consulate will be
evacuated on a special flight on January 28.
According to the State Department, private Americans most at risk will also
be able to board the flight to San Francisco.
Meanwhile, UK-based researchers have warned of a real possibility that China
will not be able to contain the virus.
Travel restrictions have come in place in several affected cities. From
January 26, private vehicles will be banned from central districts of Wuhan,
the source of the outbreak.
According to Chinese state newspaper the People’s
Daily, a second emergency hospital is to be built there within weeks to
handle 1,300 new patients, and will be finished in half a month. It is the
second such rapid construction project: work on another 1,000-bed hospital has
already begun.
Specialist military medical teams have also been flown into Hubei province,
where Wuhan is located.
The urgency reflects concern both within China and elsewhere about the virus
which first appeared in December.
Lunar New Year celebrations for the year of the rat, which began on January
25, have been canceled in many Chinese cities.
Across mainland China, travelers are having their temperatures checked for
signs of fever, and train stations have been shut in several cities.
Hong Kong has declared the highest level of emergency and school holidays
were extended.
Several other nations are each dealing with a handful of cases, with
patients being treated in isolation.
A coronavirus is a family of viruses which include the common cold.
However, this virus has never been seen before. It is called 2019-nCov, for
“novel coronavirus”.
New viruses can become common in humans after jumping across the species
barrier from animals.
The SARS [Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome] outbreak of 2003 started in
bats and transferred to the civet cat which passed it on to humans.
This new Chinese virus also causes severe acute respiratory infection.
Symptoms seem to start with a fever, followed by a dry cough and then, after a week, lead to shortness of breath and some patients needing hospital treatment.
There is no specific cure or vaccine.
Based on early information, it is believed that only a quarter of infected
cases are “severe”, and the dead are mostly – though not exclusively
– older people, some of whom have pre-existing conditions.
The Chinese authorities suspect a seafood market that “conducted illegal transactions of wild animals” was the source of the outbreak.
The new virus discovered in China, known also as 2019-nCoV, is understood to
be a new strain of coronavirus that has not previously been identified in
humans.
Coronaviruses are a broad family of viruses, but only six (the new one would
make it seven) are known to infect people.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised people to avoid
“unprotected” contact with live animals, thoroughly cook meat and
eggs, and avoid close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms.
Signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath
and breathing difficulties.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging
from the common cold to more severe disease. It’s not yet clear how bad this
new coronavirus is.
If a patient has recovered from the infection, they should not pose a
significant risk to others and can be sent home from hospital provided they are
well enough.
The first human cases were identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in
December 2019.
There have not been any other suspected human cases reported prior to this.
Given the type of virus, the incubation period (how long it takes for
symptoms to appear after catching the infection) is days, rather than weeks.
It is not yet known how or when the virus became infectious to people.
Experts believe the first cases were transmitted by an animal.
At the moment, there is no vaccine that can protect people against this type
of coronavirus, but researchers are looking to develop one.
It is a new strain that hasn’t been seen in humans before, which means
doctors still have lots to learn about it.
Based on currently available information, the WHO has not recommended any
restrictions on travel or trade.
You should re-check the latest travel advice before you depart.
Extra airport checks such as temperature scans have been put in place to screen
some travelers in some countries/states.
Airports in Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo have been screening air
passengers from Wuhan and US authorities last week announced similar measures
at three major airports in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.
It is not yet known how the virus
was transmitted. Other coronaviruses, such as SARS and MERS, came from cats and
camels respectively.
Experts are working to find the
source.
Standard recommendations to prevent
infection apply. These include:
regular hand washing
covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing
thoroughly cooking meat and eggs
Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing.
A new research suggests that dromedary camels could be responsible for passing to humans the deadly MERS coronavirus that emerged last year.
Tests have shown the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus, or one that is very closely related, has been circulating in the animals, offering a potential route for the spread.
The study is published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
But the scientists say more research is needed to confirm the findings.
The MERS coronavirus first emerged in the Middle East last year. So far, there have been 94 confirmed cases and 46 deaths.
While there has been evidence of the virus spreading between humans, most cases are thought to have been caused by contact with an animal. But until now, scientists have struggled to work out which one.
To investigate, an international team looked at blood samples taken from livestock animals, including camels, sheep, goats and cows, from a number of different countries.
Dromedary camels could be responsible for passing to humans the deadly MERS coronavirus
They tested them for antibodies – the proteins produced to fight infections – which can remain in the blood long after a virus has gone.
Professor Marion Koopmans, from the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment and Erasmus University in The Netherlands, said: “We did find antibodies that we think are specific for the MERS coronavirus or a virus that looks very similar to the MERS coronavirus in dromedary camels.”
The team found low levels of antibodies in 15 out of 105 camels from the Canary Islands and high levels in each of the 50 camels tested in Oman, suggesting the virus was circulating more recently.
“Antibodies point to exposure at some time in the life of those animals,” Prof. Marion Koopmans explained.
No human cases of the MERS virus have been reported in Oman or the Canary Islands, and the researchers say they now need to test more widely to see if the infection is present elsewhere.
This would include taking samples from camels in Saudi Arabia, the country where the virus is the most prevalent.
Prof. Marion Koopmans said: “It is a smoking gun, but it is not definitive proof.”
Health officials say confirming where the virus comes from is important, but then understanding how humans get infected is a priority.
Gregory Hartl, from the World Health Organization, said: “Only if we know what actions and interactions by humans lead to infection, can we work to prevent these infections.”
Data suggests that it is not yet infectious enough to pose a global threat and is still at a stage where its spread could be halted.
The new Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, which has killed half of those infected, is “unlikely” to reach the same scale as SARS, ministers in Saudi Arabia say.
Most of the 90 MERS cases reported so far have been in Saudi Arabia.
MERS is from the same group of viruses as the common cold and SARS, which killed 774 people.
However, a detailed analysis of the Saudi cases, published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, did warn of “major gaps” in understanding of the virus.
The MERS coronavirus emerged in 2012 and has infected 90 people worldwide, 45 of them have died.
MERS is from the same group of viruses as the common cold and SARS, which killed 774 people
The global concern is that cases could spread much further, echoing the SARS outbreak.
Cases have been centered on the Middle East – with patients in Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Additional cases in France, Germany, Italy, Tunisia and the UK have all been linked to travel to the Middle East.
Researchers in Saudi Arabia have published details of the 47 cases reported in the country.
They suggest a pattern of mostly older men being infected. Most cases were also in people with other medical problems, more than two-thirds of the reported cases also had diabetes.
The lead researcher and Deputy Minister for Public Health, Prof. Ziad Memish, said: “Despite sharing some clinical similarities with SARS, there are also some important differences.
“In contrast to SARS, which was much more infectious especially in healthcare settings and affected the healthier and the younger age group, MERS appears to be more deadly, with 60% of patients with co-existing chronic illnesses dying, compared with the 1% toll of SARS.
“Although this high mortality rate with MERS is probably spurious due to the fact that we are only picking up severe cases and missing a significant number of milder or asymptomatic cases.
“So far there is little to indicate that MERS will follow a similar path to SARS.”
However, the latest Saudi investigation both highlighted the need to find where the virus was coming from.
Prof. Ziad Memish’s report said: “Reducing the rate of introduction of MERS coronavirus into human beings is unpredictable because the source of the virus is not yet known.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it appears likely that the new coronavirus (NCoV) can be passed between people in close contact.
This comes after the French health ministry confirmed a second man had contracted the virus in a possible case of human-to-human transmission.
Two more people in Saudi Arabia are also reported to have died from the virus, according to health officials.
NCoV is known to cause pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure.
WHO officials have expressed concern over the clusters of cases of the new coronavirus strain and the potential for it to spread.
Since 2012, there have been 33 confirmed cases across Europe and the Middle East, with 18 deaths, according to a recent WHO update.
Cases have been detected in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and have spread to Germany, the UK and France.
“Of most concern… is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person,” the WHO said on Sunday.
French health ministry confirmed a second man contracted the new coronavirus in a possible case of human-to-human transmission
“This pattern of person-to-person transmission has remained limited to some small clusters and so far, there is no evidence to suggest the virus has the capacity to sustain generalized transmission in communities,” the statement adds.
France’s second confirmed case was a 50-year-old man who had shared a hospital room in Valenciennes, northern France, with a 65-year-old who fell ill with the virus after returning from Dubai.
“Positive results [for the virus] have been confirmed for both patients,” the French health ministry said, adding that both men were being treated in isolation wards.
Meanwhile, the Saudi deputy minister of health said on Sunday that two more people had died from the coronavirus, bringing the number of fatalities to nine in the al-Ahsa governorate in the east of Saudi Arabia, Reuters news agency reports.
WHO officials have not yet confirmed the latest deaths.
In February, a patient died in a hospital in Birmingham, England, after three members of the same family became infected.
It is thought a family member had picked up the virus while travelling to the Middle East and Pakistan.
Novel coronavirus is from the same family of viruses as the one that caused an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that emerged in Asia in 2003.
However, NCoV and SARS are distinct from each other, the WHO said in its statement on Sunday.
Coronavirus is known to cause respiratory infections in both humans and animals.
But it is not yet clear whether it is a mutation of an existing virus or an infection in animals that has made the jump to humans.
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