The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said Britons returning from China will not be quarantined and should instead remain at home and call medics if they experience symptoms.
On Tuesday the Foreign Office advised the 30,000 Britons in China to leave “if they can” and recommended a ban on Britons travelling to China.
“The advice is that if they have symptoms then they should stay at home, self-isolate as it’s called, and call 111, not go to the GP or to the A&E because there’s a risk of spreading the virus,” Hancock told BBC Breakfast.
He said he expected more cases of coronavirus to be confirmed in the UK. “There’s two cases only here in the UK but we do expect more so we’re taking no chances.”
The two people diagnosed with the illness became unwell at a hotel in York and are being treated at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.
The last UK government-chartered flight out of Wuhan is due to fly on Sunday. The Foreign Office has urged all remaining British nationals in Hubei province to register if they want to leave on the flight.
The plane is expected to leave in the early hours of Sunday morning local time and will land at RAF Brize Norton.
It is estimated that 165 Britons and their dependants remain in Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak. As of the early hours of Wednesday, 108 people had requested assistance to leave.
What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the centre of the Chinese city.
What other coronaviruses have there been?
New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are other examples – severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.
What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died were already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China’s national health commission, and there have been human-to-human transmissions in the US and in Germany. As of 8 February, the death toll stands at 722 inside China, one in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines. Infections inside China stand at 31,161 and global infections have passed 280 in 28 countries. The mortality rate is 2%.
Two members of one family have been confirmed to have the virus in the UK, and a third person was diagnosed with it in Brighton, after more than 400 were tested and found negative. The Foreign Office has urged UK citizens to leave China if they can. Five new cases in France are British nationals, and British nationals are also among the 64 cases on a cruise liner off Japan.
The number of people to have contracted the virus could be far higher, as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by World Health Organization (WHO) experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.
Why is this worse than normal influenza, and how worried are the experts?
We don’t yet know how dangerous the new coronavirus is, and we won’t know until more data comes in. The mortality rate is around 2%. However, this is likely to be an overestimate since many more people are likely to have been infected by the virus but not suffered severe enough symptoms to attend hospital, and so have not been counted. For comparison, seasonal flu typically has a mortality rate below 1% and is thought to cause about 400,000 deaths each year globally. Sars had a death rate of more than 10%.
Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough?
Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that people should call 111 instead of visiting the GP’s surgery as there is a risk they may infect others.
Is this a pandemic and should we panic?
Health experts are starting to say it could become a pandemic, but right now it falls short of what the WHO would consider to be one. A pandemic, in WHO terms, is “the worldwide spread of a disease”. Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in about 25 countries outside China, but by no means in all 195 on the WHO’s list.
There is no need to panic. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. The WHO has declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, and says there is a “window of opportunity” to halt the spread of the disease. The key issues are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital. Often viruses that spread easily tend to have a milder impact.
Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin
A total of 94 UK nationals and family members have already been evacuated to Britain from Wuhan on two flights, which arrived on Friday and Sunday.
One passenger was taken to hospital in Oxford after telling medics he had a cough and a cold, while the rest of those who came back are in quarantine at Arrowe Park hospital in Wirral.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said on Tuesday night that the final flight would have space for all British nationals and their dependants remaining in Hubei to leave.
“We have been working round the clock to help British nationals leave Hubei province on UK, French and New Zealand flights,” he said. “I encourage all British nationals in Hubei to register with our teams if they want to leave on this flight.”
New Zealanders, Australians, Britons and people from several Pacific nations landed in Auckland from Wuhan on Wednesday. A British diplomat thanked her New Zealand counterparts on Tuesday evening after it emerged the plane had been held to allow a British four-year-old to get clearance to fly.
Danae Dholakia tweeted: “So grateful to NZ colleagues for getting 14 Brits/family members onto NZ flight from Wuhan last night, incl. holding up departure so @UKinChina could get clearances for the last passenger, a British 4 yr old child, to board. New Zealand: you’re wonderful!”
The death toll from the novel coronavirus has climbed to 490 in mainland China, and the number of confirmed cases has risen to 24,324. There has been one fatality in Hong Kong and one in the Philippines.
In Japan, 3,700 crew and passengers onboard a cruise ship are being held in quarantine for at least two weeks after 10 people tested positive for the virus.
David Abel, a British passenger who has been on the Diamond Princess for more than two weeks, said people were being confined to their cabins.
“We’re not even allowed to open the cabin door to go down the corridor. They bring the food to us – it’s a knock on the door. For the first time ever the crew are masked up,” he said.
“The passengers I feel really sorry for are those who presumably wanted to save money and booked inside cabins – they’ve got no natural light and they’ve got no fresh air,” he said, adding that he and his wife were in a more comfortable suite with a balcony.
Passengers and crew on another cruise ship, the World Dream, are being quarantined in Hong Kong after 30 crew members showed symptoms of coronavirus, including fever.
Health officials are trying to trace 239 people who flew from Wuhan to the UK before travel restrictions came into force. The Department of Health said 414 people had tested negative for coronavirus as of Tuesday.
Public Health England (PHE) said a Belgian woman onboard a French flight that brought back UK citizens from China on Sunday has tested positive for the new strain.
Nick Phin, PHE’s national infection service deputy director, said: “All of the individuals who were on this flight are currently in supervised isolation and are being monitored for symptoms.”
