Summary
Here’s a summary of today’s main coronavirus developments, as the outbreak continues across the globe:
- Europe has its first confirmed death from the disease as France’s health minister announced that an 80-year-old Chinese man who travelled from the coronavirus-hit Hubei province to Paris last month had died.
- Eight of the nine patients in the UK who tested positive for the coronavirus have been discharged, NHS England has confirmed. Five of the patients released a statement saying that they were “feeling well and looking forward to being home”.
- Health secretary Matt Hancock said the fact that eight patients had been successfully treated and discharged from hospital was “evidence of how well prepared our NHS is to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus”.
- An American passenger on a cruise ship, turned away from five countries despite no reports of the sickness on board at the time before finally docking in Cambodia, has tested positive for coronavirus.
Updated
Here’s some experts views on yesterday’s confirmation of the first coronavirus case in Africa, after a patient tested positive in Egypt. Prof Christl Donnelly, of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Modelling, Imperial College London, said:
In our modern interconnected world, it is not surprising for imported Covid-19 cases to be detected in previously unaffected countries. It is encouraging that the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) are working with the World Health Organization and African member states to support diagnostic and surveillance capabilities.
Dr Andrew Freedman, reader in infectious diseases and honorary consultant physician, Cardiff University School of Medicine, said:
It was always inevitable that the virus would spread to the African continent. Indeed, there may well already be more cases in other African countries that have evaded detection. The concern is that it may prove impossible to contain the spread of Covid-19 in developing countries with less robust health systems; this, in turn, could lead to wider global spread.”
Prof Trudie Lang, director of the Global Health Network, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said:
The WHO declared this to be a PHE [public health emergency] because they wanted to support less well resourced nations in responding and preparing for cases. This first case in Africa is important but not unexpected. The patient is isolated and contacts found and tested (all negative). The response of the Africa CDC shows the strong networks and collaboration that there is in place across Africa and these organisations are working now to train and prepare staff in order to maximise capabilities to detect and isolate cases. A key challenge is diagnostic capacity across much of Africa and here is where global support and research to find validated, inexpensive kits that can be used in the community is going to be critical.”
Dr Michael Head, senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, said:
Cairo is the destination typically receiving the most visitors and workers from China, so it is unsurprising the first case on the African continent is seen in Egypt. There have been concerns about the impact of the coronavirus outbreak when it arrives in Africa. Therefore, it is reassuring that there has been some rapid contact tracing and all contacts have tested negative. This gives confidence that this might be an isolated case with minimal transmission.”
Updated
American woman on cruise ship turned away by five countries tests positive for coronavirus
An American passenger on a cruise ship that was turned away from five countries, despite no reports at the sickness on board at the time, has tested positive for coronavirus.
The 83-year-old female holidaymaker tested positive in Malaysia, the country’s health ministry confirmed. She had flown there along with 144 others from the ship on Friday from Cambodia, where the Westerdam cruise ship eventually docked. The woman’s husband tested negative for the disease, Malaysia’s health ministry added.
The Westerdam, operated by US-based Holland America Line, docked in the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia on Thursday after being turned away by several countries on fears that passengers could be carrying the virus.
The vessel, carrying 1,455 passengers and 802 crew, spent two weeks at sea. Passengers were tested regularly on board and 20 were also tested once the ship docked in Cambodia. However, no one tested positive at the time.
Updated
The coronavirus outbreak is still an emergency for China and it is impossible to tell where the epidemic will spread, the World Health Organization’s director general has said.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreye told the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday that he was encouraged by actions China had taken to slow the spread of virus but was still concerned about the increasing number of cases, with the total hitting 66,000.
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Five members of a ski group who stayed at a French chalet visited by the businessman Steve Walsh, who has been linked to 11 cases of coronavirus, say they are looking forward to returning home after beating the disease.
The patients, who are among eight released from hospital in the UK after recovering from coronavirus, said in a joint statement that they were “feeling well and looking forward to being home”.
They were at the same chalet as Walsh, a scout leader from Hove, who was the first British national identified as having caught the virus. He said on Tuesday that he had fully recovered.
In a statement, the five group members said: “All of our group, including the six in other countries, have recovered quickly from the virus having required minimal medical treatment during our time in isolation.
“We understand the virus can be dangerous for some, but we also want to share the important facts of our situation to help reassure people.
“We want to thank everybody who has been involved in our care, in particular the NHS nurses and doctors who have looked after us over the past few days.
“We would also like to thank our families, friends, work colleagues and members of the public for their support.”
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has responded to the news that all but one of the UK’s nine coronavirus patients have been discharged from hospital and the release of quarantined returnees from China. He said:
As the last group leave supported isolation in the Wirral today, I want to express my thanks for their patience in these unique circumstances. The overwhelming gratitude expressed by those who left earlier this week is a testament to the exceptional support and tireless dedication of our NHS in trying circumstances.
I am also pleased that 8 of the 9 individuals who tested positive for coronavirus have now been successfully treated and discharged from hospital. Again, this is evidence of how well prepared our NHS is to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus.
I want to stress that any individuals who are discharged from hospital are now well and do not pose any public health risk to the public.
Updated
UK citizens on board the locked-down cruise ship in Japan are appealing to be brought home for quarantine in Britain but the government has not yet said if it would follow the US lead in flying them out.
Earlier, the US embassy in Tokyo announced it would fly out an estimated 380 Americans currently onboard the vessel, which has been in quarantine since the start of the month.
Asked if the UK was planning an evacuation flight for British nationals on board the Diamond Princess, a Foreign Office spokesperson said only that officials are “working around the clock to ensure the welfare of the British nationals on board” and “urgently speaking to authorities in Japan and the UK”.
Yesterday, a British man stuck with his wife onboard the luxury cruise ship appealed to billionaire Richard Branson to save them. In a Facebook live video, David Abel asked the Virgin boss to charter a plane to fly all British nationals on the ship home to carry out their quarantine.
Appealing directly to Branson, he said: “If you and your family were in this situation, what would you do? And please don’t say ‘chill out, stay calm’, that’s not what we want to hear.
“I’m asking: what would it cost to hire one of your smaller planes, put all the Brits onboard, no flight attendants, packaged food?”
Updated
Australia is dispatching a medical expert to Japan to assist the country’s response to the quarantined cruise ship in Yokohama on which there are more than 200 confirmed coronavirus cases.
The infectious disease expert will bolster an international team gathering details about the Diamond Princess’s 3,000-plus passengers and crew, including 200 Australians.
It follows the Australian government extending the country’s two-week travel ban from mainland China for another seven days this week to prevent the spread of the disease.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says keeping Australians safe from the virus is “absolutely paramount”, but concedes that it is a “savage blow” to tourism.
“The ban on passenger air travel also impacts on a range of other industries that depend on frequent air movements to shift goods, including perishable products,” the body’s tourism executive chair, John Hart, said in a statement.
“Tourism and trade would greatly benefit from even a partial lifting of the ban from provinces in China that present a much lower risk to Australians.”
Updated
Eight coronavirus patients released from hospital in the UK
Eight of the nine patients in the UK who tested positive for the coronavirus have been discharged, NHS England has confirmed.
The last of those being quarantined at Arrowe Park after returning from China have left hospital, NHS England added. More than 100 people remain in isolation at the Kents Hill Park Hotel, Milton Keynes.
Prof Keith Willet, NHS strategic incident director, said:
The last guests have left Arrowe Park hospital and I would once again like to thank them for the calm, patient and responsible way that they have responded to what must have been a trying situation.
Over the coming weeks many more of us may need to spend some time at home to reduce the spread of the virus and they have set a great example.
I would like to thank all those NHS staff and partners, as well as Public Health England, who have worked so hard to make their stay as comfortable as possible, those still caring for guests in Milton Keynes and all the doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals who have successfully treated patients at other hospitals.
We must not forget the local residents, council staff, volunteers and numerous others who have rallied round to help our guests in their time of need. Thank you all.
Updated
My colleague, Lily Kuo, has written a heart-wrenching piece detailing the story of a 25-year-old Chinese woman who could only look on as her relatives were ravaged by the virus.
Liu Mengdi has been keeping a diary of the past few weeks about the impact of coronavirus in her home town of Wuhan, but has now been warned to stop posting about the trauma.
Writing movingly in her diary about her 90-year-old grandfather’s death, Mengdi recorded: “Grandpa really is strong. We knew he must have been in a lot of pain, but he still insisted and pretended he was fine. Before his results could come back, he couldn’t hold on any more and closed his eyes for the last time.”
A further 67 passengers have come down with coronavirus on the cruise ship quarantined in Japan, the country’s health minister confirmed earlier.
The Diamond Princess, which already had more than 200 people on board who tested positive for the disease, has been in lockdown since the start of the month. It had 3,700 passengers and crew when it went into quarantine on 3 February.
It comes as the US embassy in Tokyo said earlier that it would fly nearly 400 of its citizens stuck onboard the ship home.
Updated
As news filters through of Europe’s first coronavirus death, here’s some expert reaction. Dr Andrew Freedman, reader in infectious diseases and honorary consultant physician, Cardiff University School of Medicine, said:
This first reported death in Europe from Covid-19 in an 80-year-old man comes as no surprise. Although the mortality rate is low – probably less than 2%, we know that the risk of severe disease and death is greatest in the elderly as well as those with underlying co-morbidities such as diabetes and chronic respiratory disease. It is still the case that the vast majority of infections are relatively mild with full recovery.”
Dr Robin Thompson, junior research fellow in mathematical epidemiology, University of Oxford, added:
Given that we have now seen 46 coronavirus cases in total in Europe, it is unsurprising that we have seen our first death. The most important thing to point out, however, is that there still hasn’t been sustained person-to-person transmission in Europe. As a result, the risk to individuals in the UK remains low.”
Updated
The confirmed coronavirus fatality in France is the first among 46 cases of the disease in Europe.
According to the latest figures released by the World Health Organization (WHO) yesterday, Germany tops the list of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the continent at 16, followed by 11 in France and nine in the UK.
There have been three cases in Italy, two in each of Russia and Spain, as well as individual cases in Sweden, Finland and Belgium.
Here’s some advice released by WHO on Twitter this morning on how to cope with stress during the outbreak:
It is normal to feel sad, stressed, confused, scared or angry during a crisis.
— World Health Organization Philippines (@WHOPhilippines) February 15, 2020
Here is how you can cope with stress during the coronavirus disease (#COVID19) outbreak. pic.twitter.com/HN0lbOKZoU
Updated
Welcome to the Guardian’s coronavirus live blog, where we will be bringing readers rolling coverage throughout the day, furnishing you with the latest developments on the outbreak.
The death toll has now topped 1,500 with an additional 143 fatalities in the 24 hours to midnight on Friday. There have been more than 66,000 confirmed cases worldwide.
Significantly, it emerged this morning that Europe has its first confirmed death from the disease as France’s health minister announced that an 80-year-old Chinese man who travelled from the coronavirus-hit Hubei province last month had died.
Meanwhile, nearly 400 American passengers stuck onboard a cruise liner quarantined in Japan due to the coronavirus outbreak will be flown home on chartered aircraft, the US embassy in Tokyo has said.
Beijing has also ordered people returning to the city from holidays to quarantine themselves for 14 days.
And, finally, in another bid to halt the coronavirus spread, China is disinfecting and isolating used banknotes.
